The  Gift  of  Richard  J.  Fal 


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University  of  Illinois        ^^^i^; 
at  Urbana-Champaign 

LLINOIS  HISTORICAi.  SURVB^./^;> 


OUR    CHILDEEN 


HINTS  FROM  PRACTICAL  EXPERIENCE 
FOR  PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS 


BY 

PAUL  CARUS 


'  KOMUT,  LASST  UNS  UNSERKN   KiNDERN   L2BEN  !  " 

— FROEBEL. 


CHICAGO: 

THE  OPEN  COUET  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1912 


COPYBIQHT  BY 

THE   OPBN    COURT    PUBUSHINO    00. 

1906 


lUlAOlS 
CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Education  and  Progress 1 

The  First  Steps 6 

Parenthood 13 

Imagination  and  Love  op  Truth 22 

Worldly  Prudence 28 

The  Use  op  Money 34 

Square  Dealing 40 

Sympathy  with  Animals 46 

Don't  Say  Don't        50 

Treatment  of  a  Naughty  Child 58 

Stimulate    Selp- Criticism 64 

Do   Not  Punish 67 

Direct  and  Divert,  but  do  not  Suppress     ...     76 

Sanitary   Attention   to    Children 82 

The  Significance  of  Naming  Things  in  the  Nur- 
sery       94 

Counting 103 

Mind-Reading  and  Arithmetic 109 

Natural  Science 120 

Facts  not  Fancy 125 

Foreign  Languages 128 

Mathematics 134 

Music  in  Education 140 

Playful  Instruction,  and  Genius 147 

Rationalism  in  the  Nursery 160 

Mutual  Education  of  Children 171 

Fear  and  Circumspection 178 

Santa  Claus 190 

Index 205 


OUR   CHILDREN 

EDUCATION  AND  PROGRESS 

How  can  we  judge  of  a  civilization,  and 
is  there  any  standard  at  all  by  which  we 
may  gage  its  power  and  significance? 

This  question  should  not  be  impossible  to 
answer  and  we  believe  that  the  replies  given 
by  different  thinkers  will  be  characteristic 
of  their  philosophy.  It  is  a  test  question 
that  wiU  reveal  the  true  nature  of  a  system 
of  thought.  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  and  his 
followers  find  its  answer  in  the  supremacy 
of  the  spiritual  over  the  material,  under- 
standing by  the  spiritual  the  mode  of 
thought  which  is  entertained  by  the  priest. 
The  philosopher  of  matter  and  motion 
measures  the  advance  of  society  by  the 
complexity  of  its  phenomena;  to  him  evo- 
lution is  a  progress  from  the  homogeneous 
to    the    heterogeneous.      We    agree   with 


2  OUR  CHILDREN. 

neither  and  would  say  that  culture  is  at- 
tained in  the  measure  that  truth  has  been 
actualized  in  life. 

We  insist  that  the  actualization  of  truth 
is  the  only  standard  which  can  be  used  as 
a  criterion,  but  we  will  not  deny  that  there 
are  many  indicators  of  progress  which  like 
straws  in  the  wind  are  signs  of  the  times, 
and  most  of  them  will  not  be  contradictory 
with  each  other.  Of  these  indicators  there 
are  as  many  as  there  are  diverse  attitudes 
in  life,  nay  more  than  that,  as  many  as  there 
are  functions  of  life  in  which  progress  may 
manifest  itself ;  and  we  will  enimierate  only 
a  few  of  them. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  the  standing  of 
woman  in  the  community,  the  respect  shown 
to  her,  the  assurance  that  her  rights  will  be 
protected,  may  be  regarded  as  an  unfailing 
evidence  of  civilized  conditions.  The  finan- 
cier is  inclined  to  regard  that  nation  as 
leading  the  others  in  the  march  of  progress 
which  controls  the  finances  of  the  world. 
The  engineer  takes  his  measure  of  value  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  and  efficiency  of  ma- 


EDUCATION  AND  PROGRESS.  8 

chinery  used  for  the  manufacture  of  goods. 
In  the  domain  of  transportation  most  is 
made  of  the  proportion  of  railroad  lines  to 
the  area,  or  perhaps  the  population  of  a 
country.  So  every  one  uses  the  measure  to 
which  he  is  accustomed  in  his  own  home, 
his  trade,  or  his  own  vocation,  and  even  the 
soap-manufacturer  gages  the  civilization  of 
a  people  according  to  the  consumption  (i.  e., 
the  use,  perhaps  even  the  waste)  of  soap. 

But  if  we  attribute  to  the  parent  the  senti- 
ment that  the  rank  of  a  commimity  in  the 
scale  of  progress  should  range  according  to 
the  significance  ascribed  to  the  education  of 
children,  we  would  perhaps  have  an  indi- 
cator that  comes  nearest  to  the  real  criterion 
of  true  culture. 

The  higher  an  animal  ranges  in  the  scale 
of  life  the  more  it  stands  in  need  of  educa- 
tion. The  lowest  organisms  needno  parental 
carfe  whatever  for  they  merely  vegetate,  but 
the  more  prominent  becomes  the  part  played 
by  the  mind  the  less  complete  is  a  creature 
at  its  birth,  and  the  less  prepared  for  the 
struggle   of   existence.     More   than   other 


4  OUR  CHILDREN. 

creatures,  man  needs  protection  and  instruc- 
tion, so  as  to  be  preserved  during  the  tender 
age  of  infancy  and  fully  equipped  for  the 
heavy  demands  of  life. 

Our  frontispiece,  a  picture  by  Georges  La- 
vergne,  represents  a  child's  first  steps  un- 
der the  mother's  guiding  love,  symbolizing 
the  instinctive  anxiety  of  mankind  to  lead 
the  growing  generation  in  the  right  path 
and  develop  its  latent  forces  so  that  when 
the  present  generation  has  passed  away,  it 
will  in  its  turn  take  up  the  torch  which  has 
been  handed  down  and  carry  it  further  on 
in  the  advancement  of  the  race. 

The  educational  ideal  does  not  merely 
mean  a  preservation  of  the  treasures  of  the 
past,  but  includes  future  progress.  It  is 
not  sufficient  that  the  children  of  to-day  be 
like  their  fathers.  We  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  law  of  evolution  better  than 
our  ancestors  did,  and  since  we  can  give  our 
children  better  chances  in  their  lives  than 
we  ourselves  possessed,  we  can  expect  of 
them  more  than  we  have  accomplished. 
They  should  surpass  us,  and  it  is  our  duty 


EDUCATION  AND  PROGRESS.  5 

to  enable  them  to  do  so;  for  Goethe  was 
right  when  he  urged  that  'Hhe  son  be  better 
than  his  father  I" 

Our  lives  are  limited,  and  the  older  we 
grow  the  more  will  our  personal  interests 
be  narrowed  and  reduced;  but  we  can  keep 
our  hearts  young  if  we  live  with,  and  for, 
and  in,  our  children. 

They  can  attain  what  was  unattainable  to 
us,  and  they  can  become  what  we  wished  to 
be,  but  the  best  of  it  for  us  is  that  we  our- 
selves can  be  instrumental  in  helping  them 
to  actualize  our  ideals. 


THE  FIRST  STEPS 

The  first  steps  we  take  in  life,  especially 
the  first  steps  in  our  intellectual  and  emo- 
tional development,  are  not  so  indifferent 
as  may  at  first  sight  appear. 

Children  are  imitative,  and  their  souls 
are  built  up  by  the  impressions  which  they 
receive.  Every  single  experience,  every  ob- 
servation of  older  folks,  of  parents,  of 
nurses,  but  especially  of  elder  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  generally  of  all  belonging  to  the 
circle  of  their  acquaintance,  exercises  a 
powerful  influence  in  the  building  up  of  the 
character  of  the  child. 

The  child  inherits  from  its  ancestors  a 
great  many  things  which  constitute  the  cap- 
ital with  which  man  starts  in  life.  This 
capital  consists  not  only  of  the  bodily  or- 
ganism with  all  its  details,  but  also  of  the 
mental  as  well  as  emotional  dispositions  and 
aptitudes,   the   significance   of   which   can 


THE  FIRST  STEPS.  .7 

never  be  overrated.  But  this  endowment 
is  not  definite  either  in  quantity  or  quality, 
because  the  application  made  of  it,  the  use 
to  which  it  is  put,  and  the  moulding  of  this 
raw  material  into  concrete  forms  is  not  in- 
herited. The  formative  work  is  done  dur- 
ing the  life  of  the  indi\ddual,  first  by  edu- 
cation, then  by  experience ;  during  childhood 
in  our  homes,  our  schools,  and  social  sur- 
roundings, and  when  we  have  reached  ma- 
turity and  become  independent,  by  our- 
selves. Hence  the  paramount  importance  of 
education. 

The  babe's  brain  contains  besides  other 
areas  of  importance,  an  undeveloped  part 
in  the  so-called  Island  of  Eeil,  which  is  to 
be  the  center  of  speech.  The  disposition  to 
develop  language  is  absent  in  any  animal 
brain.  But  while  the  aptitude  for  speech  is 
inherited,  language  itself  is  not.  Our 
mother  tongue  is  not  born  with  us  but  must 
be  acquired.  A  talkative  propensity  may 
be  inherited,  but  the  language  which  a  man 
is  to  speak  in  life  depends  on  the  influences 
of  his  early  childhood,  which  determine  not 


8  OUR  CHILDREN. 

only  the  nature  of  his  cast  of  mind,  his  na- 
tionality, etc.,  but  also  the  character  and 
usage  of  his  speech  in  after  life,  whether  or 
not  his  linguistic  talent  will  make  of  him 
an  orator,  a  poet,  an  author,  a  philologist, 
a  linguist,  or  perhaps  a  mere  gossip. 

A  child  endowed  with  musical  talent 
might  with  proper  surroundings  become  a 
second  Mozart,  the  model  of  a  pure  and  clas- 
sical taste,  or  a  composer  of  rag  time  tunes ; 
or,  if  he  grows  up  among  absolutely  un- 
musical people,  his  musical  disposition  may 
remain  latent  and  show  itself  only  in  a 
freakish  way,  producing,  like  a  fallow  field, 
an  exuberance  of  tonal  weeds. 

The  raw  diamond  is  valuable  in  itself,  but 
its  greatest  worth  consists  of  opportunity. 
It  becomes  a  valuable  solitaire  only  by  cut- 
ting. 

The  soul  of  every  babe  that  is  bom  into 
the  world  possesses  a  worth  that  needs  de- 
velopment if  its  opportunities  shall  be 
changed  into  actual  values.  It  is  the  duty 
of  parents  to  see  to  it  that  this  is  done,  and 
the  right  kind  of  parents  will  endeavor  to 


THE  FIRST  STEPS.  9 

have  the  better  part  of  their  own  selves,  with 
an  excision  of  their  shortcomings,  reared  in 
their  children. 

We  all  of  us  owe  much,  in  fact  our  entire 
being,  to  the  past,  for  we  actually  are  the 
sum  total  of  the  soul-life  of  all  of  our  an- 
cestors; and  here  in  our  children, — or  for 
those  who  have  no  children  of  their  own, 
here  in  the  growing  generation, — is  the  place 
to  pay  our  debt. 

And  upon  the  whole,  parents  are  well  in- 
clined to  do  their  duty.  Nature  has  her  own 
sly  ways  of  doing  her  pleasure,  and  so  she 
makes  people  press  on  to  the  destined  goal 
that  she  proposes.  She  appeals  to  self-love, 
and  even  to  vanity,  to  make  us  work  for  her 
great  aim  which  is  the  procreation  of  an  in- 
creasingly improved  mankind.  We  believe 
in  evolution,  and  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
promises  that  the  future  man  shall  range  as 
much  higher  than  the  present  man,  as  the 
present  man  ranges  above  the  proto-savage, 
the  primitive  homo  in  spe  just  emerging 
from  the  state  of  brutehood.  As  yet  we 
have  only  imperfectly  realized  the  human 


10  OUR  CHILDREN. 

ideal.  The  man  of  the  future  shall  be  a 
true  man,  higher  and  better  and  nobler  than 
the  average  man  of  to-day.  We  can  all  do 
our  share  in  reaching  our  aim.  We  are  all 
tending  toward  it  and  yearning  for  it ;  some 
do  so  consciously,  some  unconsciously,  and 
more  or  less  intelligently.  All  our  most 
personal  interests,  our  love  of  life,  our  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation,  our  interest  in 
our  own  character,  our  hankering  after  the 
immortalization  of  our  own  particular  per- 
sonality, our  determination  to  maintain  our- 
selves in  the  struggle  for  life,  are  intimately 
interwoven  with  the  great  plan  of  nature, 
with  the  realization  of  the  highest  type  of 
manhood, — ^the  actualization  of  the  human 
ideal.  This  explains  why  parentage  is  re- 
spected among  all  races  and  nations  as  the 
noblest  calling  of  man. 

The  first  impressions  made  on  a  child's 
mind  are  especially  important  as  they  form 
the  basis  of  man's  whole  future  develop- 
ment, and  they  remain  for  a  long  time,  some- 
times forever,  the  standard  by  which  all 
later  impressions  are  measured.     Should 


THE  FIRST  STEPS.  11 

we  not,  therefore,  exercise  the  greatest  care, 
and  instead  of  leaving  the  first  mental  im- 
pressions  of  children  to  accident,  see  to  it 
that  they  are  throughout  correct? 

The  first  education  of  babies  is  frequently 
left  to  uneducated  nurses,  who  sometimes 
have  not  the  slightest  idea  of  the  sacredness 
of  their  trust  and  know  very  little  of  the 
right  treatment  of  infants.  Nurses  should 
be  chosen  with  great  care  and  should  always 
remain  under  the  personal  supervision  of 
the  mother.  They  should  be  mere  assistants 
of  the  mother,  but  never  take  her  place. 
How  many-  of  us  are  oblivious  to  the  fact 
that  whatever  we  do  and  say,  whatever  error 
we  commit,  whatever  example  we  may  set, 
is  impressed  upon  and  perpetuated  in  the 
little  souls  in  our  charge !  Let  us  keep  this 
in  mind  and  let  us  look  upon  the  child  as  a 
sacred  trust. 

Let  us  give  children  the  right  start  in  life, 
and  let  us  begin  at  the  very  beginning.  Let 
us  not  wait  until  the  children  have  grown 
old  enough  to  understand  us  and  be  capable 
of  entering  into  our  plans  and  ideas.    Let 


12  OUR  CHILDREN. 

US  begin  the  work  of  moulding  their  souls 
while  they  are  still  plastic,  and  not  wait  un- 
til character  is  already  forming,  for  then 
it  may  be  too  late. 

Let  all  parents  join  in  the  sentiment  ex- 
pressed by  the  great  apostle  of  education  in 
the  words,  Kommt,  lasst  uns  unsern  Kin- 
dern  leben!  '*Come,  let  us  live  for  our 
children!'* 

And  if,  indeed,  we  do  live  for  our  children, 
it  will  not  be  a  sacrifice  on  our  part,  not  a 
waste  or  loss  of  energy,  for  the  reward  we 
receive  in  return  is  much  richer  and  by  far 
more  valuable  than  all  the  gifts  we  have  to 
oifer.  Children  are  a  fountain  of  youth  in 
which  our  hearts  are  rejuvenated. 


PAEENTHOOD 

Parents  that  cannot  make  up  their  minds 
to  live  for  their  children  have  no  busiaess 
to  have  children.  Children  are  not  dolls; 
they  should  not  become  toys  for  our  amuse- 
ment and  diversion.  Children  are  pledges. 
The  possession  of  children  implies  duties, 
and  the  fulfilment  of  these  duties  demands 
not  only  a  painstaking  labor  and  watchful- 
ness, but  also  great  discretion  and  wisdom. 

The  obligation  of  educating  children  ex- 
ercises a  most  beneficial  influence  upon  par- 
ents, and  it  is  by  no  means  untrue  that  the 
most  humanizing  factor  in  the  evolution  of 
mankind  has  been  the  presence  of  children, 
implying  the  necessity  of  educating  them. 
The  proposition  to  discuss  **the  education 
of  parents  by  their  children''  *  is  not  as 
paradoxical  as  it  seems.    We  may  say  that 

*  This  is  the  title  of  an  article  by  Carus  Sterne,  which 
appeared  in  The  Open  Court,  Vol.  I.  Nos.  22-:23. 

13 


14  OUR  CHILDREN. 

no  one,  neither  man  nor  woman,  has  grown 
to  mental  and  moral  maturity  until  he  or 
she  has  been  confronted  with  this  noblest  of 
all  duties,  the  care  of  bringing  up  children. 
Carus  Sterne  ^  says : 

**  Every  child  requites  much  of  the  love  be- 
stowed upon  it  by  the  parents,  by  making  them 
better  and  more  perfect  beings  than  they  were 
before  its  advent  into  the  family.  In  fact,  the 
highest  polish,  the  finishing  touches  of  educa- 
tion, are  given  people  neither  by  home,  school, 
nor  church,  but  by  their  own  children.  Should 
they  be  so  unfortunate  as  not  to  have  any,  they 
will  experience  difficulties  in  replacing  this  lack- 
ing factor  in  the  education  of  their  affections." 

Frequently  sexual  love  is  spoken  of  as  the 
factor  that  exercises  a  civilizing  influence 
upon  man;  but  Carus  Sterne,  **at  the  peril 
of  exposing  himself  to  heresy  in  poetical 
matters,"  declares  that  on  the  contrary  it 

*  Carus  Sterne  is  the  nom  de  plume  of  Dr.  Ernst 
Krause,  of  Berlin,  a  well-known  German  author  of  scien- 
tific and  popular-scientific  works,  his  most  celebrated  work 
being  Werden  und  Vergehen.  He  is  counted  among  the 
foremost  evolutionists  of  Germany,  and  did  not  fail  from 
the  very  beginning  to  emphasize  the  moral  significance  of 
the  doctrine  of  evolution. 


PARENTHOOD.  15 

engenders  cruelty,  produces  destructiveness 
and  brings  about  beneficent  results  only 
when  resulting  in  a  firm  union,  demanding 
reciprocal  surrender  and  self-sacrifice. 

The  religious  aspirations  of  mankind  so 
important  in  history,  are  of  a  secondary 
growth,  for  they  develop  from  the  relation 
between  parents  and  children.  Says  the 
same  author: 

*'Out  of  parental  and  filial  love  there  devel- 
ops, even  in  immature  minds,  a  universal  love 
for  humanity.  The  infant  becomes  the  Saviour 
— the  earthly  father  becomes  the  prototype  of 
the  all-wise,  all-bountiful  Father  in  heaven." 

Protestants  as  a  rule  object  to  Mariolatry 
as  pagan.  They  are  aware  of  the  pagan 
features  of  any  image  worship  and  are  there- 
fore disgusted  with  their  Roman  Catholic 
brethren.  But  belief  in  the  divinity  of 
motherhood  contains  no  less  truth  than  the 
belief  in  the  divinity  of  fatherhood. 
Protestants,  as  a  rule,  believe  in  the  latter, 
and  are  therefore  not  aware  of  the  Protes- 
tant paganism  that  results  from  a  sensual 
and  literal  interpretation  of  the  belief  in 


16  OUR  CHILDREN. 

God  the  Father.  The  family  relation  is  not 
dual,  but  trinitarian.  It  is  not  parent  and 
child,  but  father,  mother,  and  child. 

Carus  Sterne,  too,  touches  upon  this  point. 
Though  Protestant  by  birth  and  absolutely 
independent  in  religious  matters  by  his 
scientific  education,  he  says: 

''The  early  endeavor  to  elevate  the  mother 
into  the  realm  of  the  divine  is  a  deeply  felt  and 
psychologically  well  justified  factor  in  the  de- 
velopment of  Christian  dogma.  It  was  thus 
that  the  mother  with  the  infant  on  her  lap  was 
made  the  chief  picture  at  the  shrines.  The 
''Holy  Family,"  so  typically  portrayed  by 
Raphael,  wins  all  hearts,  even  at  this  day,  in 
Protestant  countries,  for  it  justly  makes  the  nur- 
sery the  sanctuary  which  produces  and  constant- 
ly feeds  the  pure  flame  of  love  of  man  and  of 
God." 

The  possession  of  children  is  a  blessing, 
and  the  joy  that  parents  may  derive  from 
them  is  immeasurable.  It  would  neverthe- 
less be  a  grave  mistake  to  think  that  such 
happiness  can  be  had  simply  through  the 
procreation  of  progeny  and  by  indulging, 
simian  fashion,  in  a  love  of  one's  own  off- 


PARENTHOOD.  17 

spring.  The  bliss  of  parenthood  has  to  be 
bought  with  many  cares,  with  sacrifices  of 
all  kinds,  and  with  far-seeing  forethought. 

It  is  a  common  observation  that  the  char- 
acter of  people  changes  for  the  better,  the 
moment  they  become  parents.  The  average 
man  is  thoughtless  and  perhaps  even  frivo- 
lous, but  as  soon  as  the  duties  of  parenthood 
approach  him,  he  begins  to  reflect  and  be- 
comes considerate.  Now  he  weighs  his 
words  and  takes  life  more  seriously.  Many 
who  never  before  gave  a  thought  to  the  prob- 
lems of  religion,  because  they  are  lukewarm 
and  do  not  care  to  have  a  settled  opinion, 
pause  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives  and 
ask  themselves  whether  they  had  better  teach 
belief  in  God  or  unbelief.  The  moral  views 
of  people  assume  a  decidedly  more  definite 
form  when  they  think  of  their  children,  and 
our  behavior  is  influenced  by  the  idea  that 
in  our  habits  we  are  setting  an  example  to 
our  sons  and  daughters. 

What  a  wonderful  plan  it  is  of  nature  to 
split  up  the  evolution  of  mankind  (whose 
life  in  its  entirety  forms  one  uninterrupted 


18  OUR  CHILDREN. 

line  of  progress)  into  innumerable  sections 
of  individual  lives!  We  could  very  well 
imagine  a  different  arrangement.  The  in- 
dividual and  the  race  might  coincide,  and  we 
should  then  have  the  growth  and  evolution 
of  one  immortal  personality,  in  the  place 
of  an  immortal  race  broken  up  into  a  pro- 
gressive succession  of  mortal  individuals. 
There  would  be  no  death  in  the  dispensation 
of  the  unlimited  life  of  such  a  race-individ- 
ual ;  nor  would  there  be  any  birth,  and  man- 
kind would  not  need  to  start  life  over  again 
with  every  new  baby ;  there  would  be  no  need 
of  education;  no  need  of  love.  But  where 
would  the  interest  in  life  remain,  if  this 
mankind-individual  lived  through  centuries 
and  millenniums  without  being  obliged  to 
continue  its  existence  through  begetting  and 
educating  children  ?  Life  would  be  unpala- 
table if  it  were  not  broken  up  into  limited 
pieces  and  constantly  started  over  again. 
What  a  monstrosity  such  an  immortal  man- 
kind-individual would  be!  It  would  think 
and  feel  as  does  (Joethe's  Mephistopheles, 
who  in  Scene  IV  says  to  Faust : 


PARENTHOOD.  19 

**  Trust  me,  who  for  millenniums,  year  by 
year, 
The  same  tough  cud  must  masticate  and 
test : 
No  mortal  from  the  cradle  to  the  bier 
Can  ever  this  unsavory  stuff  digest. 
Trust  one  of  us  to  whom  this  life  is  known; 
The  whole  can  be  endured  by  God  alone." 

The  mutuality  of  life  is  the  condition  of 
our  moral  ideals  which  naturally  have  a 
tendency  to  break  through  the  narrow  range 
of  exclusively  individual  interests ;  it  points 
beyond  the  sphere  of  individual  life  without 
annihilating  the  importance  of  the  individ- 
ual. It  makes  the  individual  the  represent- 
ative of  superindividual  aspirations  which, 
through  the  inherited  parental  affections, 
have  become  sufficiently  deep-seated  as  to 
well  up  spontaneously  whenever  needed, 
sometimes  even  in  criminal  characters,  in 
spite  of  themselves.  Egotism  and  altruism 
are  both  useful  and  beneficent  instincts. 
They  balance  each  other,  and  where  either 
is  missing  the  other  will  run  to  seed  and  do 
great  harm. 

Our  ethics,  our  religion,  nay,  our  whole 


20  OUR  CHILDREN. 

interest  in  life,  is  simply  an  expression  of 
the  natural  constitution  of  mankind,  viz., 
of  the  system  of  mutuality. 

It  may  be  wrong  to  say  that  without  the 
mutuality  of  life  there  would  be  no  ethics 
at  all,  because  another  arrangement  would 
simply  imply  other  rules  of  conduct  than 
those  which  we  now  call  moral.  In  other 
worlds  of  a  different  constitution,  with  other 
interrelations,  there  may  be  other  needs,  and 
consequently  its  creatures  would  aspire  af- 
ter other  ideals.  It  is  difficult  to  say  what 
might  be;  but  this  much  is  sure,  that  our 
moral  and  religious  conceptions  are  a  prod- 
uct of  the  conditions  which  have  shaped 
our  lives.  However  much  religious  truths 
have  been  represented  as  a  contradiction  to 
nature,  they  are  nature  (though,  of  course, 
nature  transfigured)  in  its  highest  efflores- 
cence; and  wherever  for  a  time,  through 
gross  sensualism  and  childish  immaturity, 
by  a  literal  conception  of  parables  and  an 
unspiritual  pagan  interpretation  of  the  na- 
ture of  dogmas,  mankind  has  drifted  iato 
a  hostility  to  nature,  religion  lost  its  true 


PARENTHOOD.  21 

significance,  but  showed  always,  even  in  the 
darkest  ages,  a  tendency  to  return  to  a 
purer,  more  elevating,  and  more  natural 
morality. 

It  is  mutuality  that  gives  zest  to  life  and 
makes  it  worth  living.  The  interest  that 
keeps  us  in  the  world  and  attaches  us  to  ex- 
istence is  like  the  vault  of  a  massive  struc- 
ture, where  stones  keep  one  another  up  by 
inclining  toward  and  pressing  upon  one  an- 
other. Mutuality  holds  up  the  lofty  arch  as 
firmly  and  as  solidly  as  the  interrelation 
that  obtains  among  the  various  members  of 
human  society  naturally  produces  and  sus- 
tains ethics;  and  the  most  important,  be- 
cause fundamental,  mutuality  of  human  life 
is  the  relation  between  parents  and  children. 
It  is  apparent  that  mankind  would  never 
have  developed  true  humanity,  had  it  never 
witnessed  a  mother's  love.  The  sublimest 
and  noblest  sentiments  would  be  still  un- 
known, had  not  generation  after  generation 
been  trained  in  the  school  of  parental  care 
and  self-sacrifice.  Men  have  learned  the 
lessons  of  life  by  living  for  their  children. 


IMAGINATION  AND  LOVE  OF  TRUTH 

Love  of  knowledge  is  a  good  thing,  but 
love  of  truth  is  more  important  than  any- 
thing else,  and  should  be  impressed  upon  a 
child's  mind  as  early  as  possible;  but  we 
must  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  the  con- 
ception of  truth  can  scarcely  develop  be- 
fore the  fourth  or  fifth  year.  Although  the 
idea  is  very  simple  to  an  adult,  it  is,  in  its 
full  significance,  quite  complex, — indeed,  too 
complex  to  be  appreciated  in  all  its  im- 
portance by  children. 

The  first  condition  for  developing  the  love 
of  truth  is  never  to  let  the  punishment  of  a 
small  criminal  follow  his  confession  of  a 
trespass.  For  fear  is  the  main,  and  in  many 
cases,  the  only,  incentive  to  telling  lies, — 
lies  in  the  sense  of  wilful  misstatements  of 
facts,  of  deceptions,  made  for  the  purpose 
of  gaining  advantages  or  escaping  unpleas- 
ant results. 

22 


IMAGINATION.  23 

We  ought  to  know  that  sometimes  a  child 
tells  mitruths  which  are  not  lies.  Children 
have  a  vivid  imagination,  and  they  are  apt 
to  invent  facts.  A  certain  small  boy  who 
was  suspected  of  having  broken  a  dish  de- 
nied the  fact,  while  his  little  brother,  who 
could  not  have  done  the  deed,  positively  as- 
sured his  parents  that  he  had  broken  the 
dish.  He  told  an  untruth  simply  because 
he  imagined  how  he  might  have  broken  it. 
The  case  was  interesting  to  him,  and  in  his 
vivid  imagination  he  depicted  all  the  details, 
and  told  with  great  complacency  a  long  story 
describing  how  the  accident  had  happened. 

To  many  children  the  dreams  of  their 
imagination  at  once  become  as  real  as  the 
reminiscences  of  actual  events,  and  in  our 
fervor  of  impressing  upon  children  a  love 
of  truth,  we  must  not  be  too  quick  to  con- 
demn a  little  sinner  before  we  positively 
know  that  he  tells  not  a  mere  untruth  but 
an  actual  lie  invented  for  the  purpose  of 
shirking  his  responsibility. 

Love  of  truth  ought  to  be  closely  connected 
with  self-esteem,   and  what  is   commonly 


24  OUR  CHILDREN. 

called  the  sense  of  honor.  There  ought  to 
be  no  worse  opprobrium  than  the  defa- 
mation of  being  a  liar. 

When  years  ago  I  was  a  scientific  instruc- 
tor at  the  Royal  Corps  of  Cadets  at  Dres- 
den, I  adopted  the  principle,  whenever  any 
disturbance  of  a  recitation  occurred,  of 
simply  asking  the  question,  "Who  did  it?" 
On  the  first  occasion,  of  course,  there  was 
no  response,  whereupon  I  spoke  contempt- 
uously of  the  spirit  of  the  whole  class,  in 
which  there  was  some  one  too  cowardly  to 
stand  up  frankly  and  acknowledge  the  mis- 
chief which  he  had  committed.  I  argued 
that  all  the  members  of  the  class  were  re- 
sponsible for  the  esprit  de  corps;  and  that 
so  long  as  such  cowardice  was  condoned  and 
encouraged,  I  could  have  no  respect  for  the 
class.  When  this  happened  for  the  first 
time,  the  charge  of  cowardice  stimg  the  evil- 
doer, but  he  did  not  rise  to  confess,  although 
the  whole  class  grew  more  and  more  indig- 
nant and  urged  him  to  do  so.  The  duty  of 
the  class,  I  continued,  is  so  to  infiuence  its 
members  that  none  of  them  shall  shirk  the 


IMAGINATION.  26 

responsibility  and  fail  to  acknowledge  what- 
ever lie  has  done.  In  a  society  that  tolerates 
suspicious  characters  one  must  be  on  one's 
guard ;  and  so  a  teacher  cannot  treat  a  class 
in  which  some  refuse  to  confess  the  truth 
frankly  and  openly,  as  young  friends,  but 
as  inferiors,  comparable  to  inmates  of  a 
penitentiary  who  are  always  under  the  sus- 
picion of  wrong-doing.  The  result  was  that 
somebody  rose  to  expose  the  delinquent; 
but  I  refused  to  listen  to  the  denunciations, 
and  stigmatized,  at  the  same  time,  in  strong 
terms,  the  practice  of  playing  the  informer, 
saying  that  I  did  not  care  to  know  who  did 
it,  but  hoped  that  the  guilty  one  would  have 
honor  enough  to  tell  the  truth,  if  it  were 
for  no  other  motive  than  to  avert  suspicion 
from  an  innocent  comrade.  The  malefactor 
appeared  after  the  recitation  and  denounced 
himself  privately,  but  here  again  I  refused 
to  listen  to  the  confession,  and  told  him  the 
proper  thing  would  be  to  stand  up  before  the 
whole  class  and  publicly  acknowledge  his 
guilt.  What  he  had  done  before  the  whole 
class,  he  must  confess  to  before  the  whole 


26  OUR  CHILDREN. 

class.  Without  any  further  suggestion,  at 
the  next  recitation  the  malefactor  jumped 
up,  and  in  a  few  clear  words  made  the  con- 
fession required. 

An  occurrence  of  this  kind  took  place  once 
only  in  every  new  class  and  never  again. 
The  class  understood  the  principle,  and 
whenever  anything  out  of  the  way  happened, 
whenever  there  was  a  noise  which  was  diffi- 
cult to  trace,  or  whenever  a  disturbance  of 
any  kind  took  place,  the  cause  of  which 
could  not  be  discovered,  the  question,  **Who 
did  it?"  was  always  followed  by  the  prompt 
self -surrender  of  the  delinquent.  He  knew, 
of  course,  that  he  would  not  be  punished, 
nor  was  it  ever  necessary,  because  the  con- 
fession ended  the  joke,  if  there  was  any  joke 
in  it,  for  its  repetition  had  become  impos- 
sible. 

When  I  was  a  child  attending  school,  the 
investigation  of  criminal  cases  was  a  fa- 
vorite pastime  for  several  of  my  teachers.  I 
remember  that  many  of  our  lessons  were 
idled  away  by  cross-examinations.  The 
professor  played  the  judge  in  court,  and 


IMAGINATION.  27 

every  one  of  the  boys  deemed  it  his  duty  to 
mislead  him.  It  was  ahnost  impossible  to 
learn  the  truth,  for  the  esprit  de  corps  of 
our  classes  resulted  in  a  very  strong  notion 
that  belying  the  teacher  was  the  proper 
thing  to  do,  and  any  one  who  had  told  the 
truth  plainly,  either  in  self -confession  or  in 
denunciation  of  others  would  have  been  re- 
garded as  an  abject  fellow  who,  without  self- 
respect,  bowed  his  neck  under  the  yoke  of 
our  common  oppressors.  During  my  expe- 
rience as  a  teacher  at  the  Royal  Corps  of 
Cadets,  I  was  never  obliged  to  undertake 
any  investigation,  and  I  may  add,  I  never 
had  reason  to  doubt  the  word  of  the  boys. 
Many  of  them  are  now  officers  in  the  Ger- 
man army,  or  may  do  duty  in  the  very  insti- 
tution at  which  they  were  educated,  and  I 
hope  they  have  learned  to  treat  soldiers  and 
cadets  in  the  same  spirit.  There  is  no  rea- 
son why  the  same  method  should  not  be 
employed  in  schools  and  nurseries  all  over 
the  world. 


WORLDLY  PRUDENCE 

While  love  of  truth  must  become  part  of 
the  foundation  of  a  child's  mind,  we  should 
not  one-sidedly  press  the  importance  of 
truth  to  the  utter  neglect  of  discretion. 
Common  prudence  teaches  that  we  have  to 
tell  the  truth  at  the  right  moment  and  in  the 
right  way.  Love  of  truth  should  not  be 
identified  with  bluntness.  We  are  by  no 
means  requested  to  tell  the  truth,  the  whole 
truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  to  every- 
body. We  should  tell  the  truth  above  all 
considerations  where  it  is  our  duty  to  do  so, 
and  that  depends  upon  circumstances. 

The  physician  who  shocks  a  sick  man  by 
bluntly  telling  him,  *'Your  disease  is  fatal," 
may  be  guilty  of  a  criminal  offence  in  so  far 
as  he  hastens  the  dissolution  of  his  patient. 
He  must  be  on  his  guard  and  break  the  truth 
in  an  appropriate  way,  as  the  occasion  re- 
quires.   Due  reserve  is  not  lying,  and  blunt- 

28 


WORLDLY  PRUDENCE.  29 

ness  is  not  love  of  truth.  We  must  consider 
the  consequences  of  our  words,  and  choose 
such  expressions  as  will  bring  about  the  re- 
sult at  which  we  truthfully  aim.  We  must 
tell  the  truth  with  discretion. 

The  main  thing  is  to  tell  the  truth  to  our- 
selves. The  old  evening  prayer  has  a  very 
good  feature  in  its  review  of  the  day's  work, 
and  its  self-criticism,  at  any  rate,  should  be 
kept  up.  Whenever  a  child  has  done  any- 
thing wrong,  let  him  consider  it  in  a  quiet 
mood  when  he  retires  for  the  night,  and 
drive  home  to  him  the  lesson  that,  the  more 
severe  he  is  with  himself,  the  more  apt  he 
will  be  to  make  a  success  in  life.  Most  fail- 
ures in  life  are  direct  results  of  vanity, 
which  prevents  us  from  seeing  our  own 
faults.  Truthfulness  to  ourselves  must  be 
the  basis  of  our  truthfulness  to  others;  as 
Shakespeare  says: 

"This  above  all:  to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow  as  the  night  the  day 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man. ' ' 

As  to  cleverness  and  discretion,  I  know 
no  better  way  to  cultivate  them  than  by 


30  OUR  CHILDREN, 

reading  with  the  children  ^sop's  Fables 
and  even  Reynard  the  Fox.  The  former 
have  the  advantage  of  being  short,  and  most 
of  them  need  no  explanation  as  to  the  les- 
son involved.  The  moral  of  the  latter,  how- 
ever, is  almost  dangerous,  and  can  at  any 
rate  be  easily  misinterpreted,  because  it 
seems  to  teach  that  cunning  is  the  most 
valuable  equipment  in  life,  and  that  the 
clever  liar  will  win  in  the  end.  But  I  am 
not  willing  to  reject  the  story  on  such  easy 
terms,  for  many  of  the  situations  and  many 
of  the  delineations  of  character  are  too  real- 
istic and  intrinsically  true  not  to  teach  a 
useful  lesson. 

Reynard  the  Fox  is  a  story  without  a 
hero ;  it  does  not  hold  up  an  ideal  to  be  imi- 
tated, but  teaches  us  the  dangers  of  life. 
A  few  words  of  explanation  will  prevent 
children  from  drawing  the  wrong  moral 
from  the  story.  First  we  must  call  their  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  all  the  creatures  so 
ingeniously  duped  by  the  fox  are  caught  by 
their  own  faults — Bruin,  the  bear,  by  his 
love  of  honey;  Tibert,  the  cat,  by  his  pro- 


WORLDLY  PRUDENCE.  31 

clivity  for  mousing ;  Bellin,  the  ram,  by  Ms 
ambition  to  appear  as  a  clever  councillor; 
Kyward,  the  hare,  by  his  stupidity,  which  in 
a  certain  sense  is  a  vice  too,  and  which  our 
children  must  be  taught  to  overcome  as  a 
matter  of  duty.  It  is  true  that  Reynard  is 
the  personification  of  cunning,  but  Isegrim 
the  wolf,  his  enemy,  has  all  the  faults  of  the 
fox  with  the  sole  exception  that  he  is  phys- 
ically his  superior,  and  is,  in  addition,  vora- 
cious, improvident,  slovenly,  and  villainous. 
While  morally  the  wolf  is  no  better  than  the 
fox,  the  latter  is  at  least  clever;  ingenuity 
is  his  redeeming  feature.  And  with  what 
a  humor  are  all  the  other  characters  de- 
scribed!  Grimbart,  the  badger,  the  un- 
critical admirer  of  Reynard;  Baldwin,  the 
ass,  the  learned  clerk;  the  she-ape,  Ruck- 
inaw,  an  intriguing  chambermaid.  Noble, 
the  lion,  is  a  very  short-sighted  sovereign 
who  becomes  a  mere  puppet,  a  plaything, 
and,  without  knowing  it  himself,  is  used  by 
Reynard  as  a  tool.  The  fox  comes  out 
victorious,  because  he  is  smarter  than  his 
enemies,  but  for  all  that,  he  remains  a  ras- 


32  OUR  CHILDREN. 

cal  who  constantly  runs  the  risk  of  ending 
on  the  gallows. 

With  some  such  hints,  a  reading  of  this 
ancient  animal  epic  will  be  very  instructive, 
especially  if  after  its  perusal  the  children 
are  told  that  the  tale  reflects  the  age  in 
which  it  was  written — an  age  in  which  true 
goodness  was  rare  and  the  importance  of  a 
genuine  love  of  truth  was  not  yet  appreci- 
ated. Civilization  was  then  so  low  that 
cleverness,  even  in  the  low  form  of  cunning, 
was  uncommon,  and  whenever  found  it  was 
appreciated  as  a  rare  gift  from  heaven.  It 
takes  quite  a  clever  man  to  tell  a  lie  with 
approximate  <3onsistency,  and  the  Odyssey, 
written  in  an  analogous  period  of  culture  in 
the  Greek  nation,  expatiates  with  great  sat- 
isfaction upon  the  virtue  of  lying  and  the 
mendacious  genius  of  its  versatile  and  in- 
ventive hero,  whose  usual  epithet,  ttoXu/iittw 
(he  of  many  counsels) ,  sounds  like  a  transla- 
tion of  Begin-hard.^ 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  animal 

*  Reynard  means  "strong  in  council"  (re<7tn  =  wisdom, 
advice,  council;  and  hard  =  strong,  firm). 


WORLDLY  PRUDENCE.  33 

fables,  including  the  story  of  Reynard  the 
Fox,  are  among  the  best  methods,  if  not  the 
very  best,  to  teach  in  a  playful  way  the  first 
elements  of  worldly  wisdom.  The  fact  that 
^sop's  Fables  can  be  traced  back  to  In- 
dia, that  fables  are  mentioned  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  in  the  history  of  Rome  as 
early  as  the  sixth  century  B.  C;  further, 
that  similar  poetical  productions  of  an  in- 
dependent growth  have  been  discovered  in 
the  tales  of  Uncle  Remus  among  the  ne- 
groes of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  an- 
imal stories  of  the  natives  of  America,  Af- 
rica, and  Oceanica,  is  sufficient  evidence  not 
only  of  the  fact  that  they  must  be  a  very  an- 
cient and  venerable  heirloom  of  ancestral 
wisdom,  but  also  of  their  popularity  and 
usefulness  as  a  means  of  instruction. 

Carlyle  speaks  of  the  animal  fable  as  ^'a 
true  world's  book  which  through  centuries 
was  everywhere  at  home,  the  spirit  of  which 
diffused  itself  into  all  languages  and  all 
minds,  .  .  .  the  imiversal  household  pos- 
session and  secular  Bible." 


THE  USE  OF  MONEY 

Money  is  an  important  factor  in  the 
world  of  the  adult,  and  children,  who  are  so 
keen  in  their  observation,  will  as  a  rule  no- 
tice the  fact  at  a  tender  age.  The  time 
comes  when  they  introduce  its  use  into  their 
play,  and  it  is  not  an  uncommon  occurrence 
that  they  manufacture  a  monetary  system 
of  their  own  for  shopping  and  bartering, 
for  banking  and  making  investments  to  bear 
interest  or  bring  returns.  I  have  seen  chil- 
dren do  so  on  their  own  account  without  any 
instruction,  and  it  seems  that  such  tenden- 
cies deserve  encouragement,  for  the  notion 
of  money  should  not  be  left  out  in  the  nur- 
sery. Children  wijl  instinctively  anticipate 
the  conditions  of  the  life  that  is  in  store  for 
them  and  their  plays  are  and  ought  to  be  an 
education. 

Games  are  in  the  market  which  have  been 
invented     to     familiarize     children     with 

84 


THE  USE  OF  MONEY.  35 

money,  but  I  do  not  remember  any  one  that 
would  deserve  recommendation.  Nor  would 
I  advise  the  use  of  artificial  money  such  as 
accompanies  these  games  for  it  is  much  bet- 
ter if  the  children  themselves  manufacture 
the  money  which  they  need  for  their  own 
games.  They  can  easily  limit  the  amount  by 
having  every  piece  of  currency  signed  by  all 
members  of  their  little  community  and  they 
may  start  with  an  equal  amount  allotted  to 
every  one,  and  have  them  backed  up  by  real 
things  that  possess  to  them  a  value  of  ex- 
change, such  as  marbles,  beans,  or  other  de- 
sirable objects.  Here,  as  in  all  other  cases, 
parents  should  allow  their  children  to  in- 
vent their  own  methods.  When  the  chil- 
dren come  more  and  more  into  contact  with 
the  domain  that  lies  beyond  the  pale  of  the 
nursery  they  begin  to  feel  the  need  of  rea? 
money  and  it  will  be  wise  to  let  them  have 
•  a  definite  allowance  so  as  to  accustom  them 
to  the  use  of  money  and  establish  in  their 
minds  at  an  early  age  habits  of  thrift  and 
order. 
There  are  two  opinions  prevalent  con- 


36  OUR  CHILDREN. 

ceming  money  both  of  which  are  wrong, 
and  it  is  important  for  man  to  have  the 
right  conception  of  the  significance  of  money 
before  he  starts  in  life.  Some  hold  money 
in  contempt  and  look  upon  it  as  the  thing 
which  defiles,  while  others  worship  it  as  the 
golden  calf,  the  measure  of  all  values  and 
the  power  that  governs  the  world. 

William  Matthews  in  his  well  known 
book.  Getting  on  in  the  World,  says  rightly : 

**The  philosophy  which  affects  to  teach 
us  a  contempt  of  money  does  not  run  very 
deep ; ' '  and 

"The  way  in  which  a  man  spends  his 
money  is  often  one  of  the  surest  tests  of  his 
character." 

Money  is  neither  the  sordid  thing  which  it 
is  often  believed  to  be,  nor  is  it  the  omnipo- 
tent ruler  of  all  earthly  affairs.  Money  be- 
comes sordid  only  by  the  touch  of  sordid 
hands;  in  itself,  all  money  is  honest,  for  it 
represents  a  certain  amount  of  human  la- 
bor, equal  to  the  exertion  of  procuring  it. 
Nor  is  money  the  almighty  power  that  rules 
the  world;  the  worth  of  money  consists  in 


THE  USE  OF  MONEY.  37 

what  it  may  buy,  but  there  are  goods  that 
can  not  be  bought  with  money, — health  and 
youth,  beauty  and  energy,  talents,  genius, 
ideals,  and  more  than  all,  honesty  and  a 
clear  conscience. 

Money  has  been  compared  to  the  blood 
that  circulates  through  our  arteries.  It 
must  circulate  to  be  useful  and  it  must  serve 
wholesome  purposes.  It  is  a  means  to  an 
end  and  as  such  it  must  be  appreciated. 
Money  has  no  value  in  itself  and  for  itself. 
To  earn  money  for  the  sake  of  hoarding  it 
may  be  useful  for  the  community,  for  large 
capitalists  are  as  much  needed  in  a  social 
aggregate  as  a  living  organism  needs  cen- 
tral organs  for  its  blood  circulation,  but  the 
man  who  hoards  will  find  the  work  neither 
profitable  nor  pleasant. 

Between  the  two  extremes  of  a  wrong 
usage  of  money  lies  the  golden  mean  and 
our  children  ought  to  know  it.  They  ought 
to  know  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to 
earn  a  living,  and  a  living  that  is  merely 
from  hand  to  mouth  is  insufficient  for  a  man 
of  providence,  and  Robert  Burns  is  right  in 


38  OUR  CHILDREN. 

pointing  out  in  one  of  his  poems  that  the 
proper  use  of  money  is 

**Not  for  to  hide  it  in  a  hedge 

Nor  for  a  train  attendant, 
But  for  the  glorious  privilege, 

Of  being  independent. ' ' 

The  best  method  of  accustoming  children 
to  the  use  of  money  is  to  put  them  in  a 
small  scale  in  such  a  position  as  they  will 
occupy  later  on  in  life  when  confronted  by 
the  cares  of  making  a  living.  Allow  them 
to  bear  in  a  small  degree  the  burden  of  life 
by  giving  them  an  allowance  for  which  they 
have  to  procure  certain  necessities  of  their 
life,  their  shoes,  their  ties,  gloves,  school 
utensils,  car  fare  or  other  things  occasion- 
ally needed ;  and  arrange  it  so  that  they  can 
freely  cover  their  expenses,  and,  if  they  are 
thrifty,  save  a  little  for  themselves  which 
they  may  use  as  they  see  fit.  This  allowance 
should  not  be  irregularly  increased  but 
should  be  paid  out  like  a  salary  on  regular 
pay  days,  and  it  should  be  made  on  the 
condition  that  a  strict  account  of  it  is  kept 
which  must  from  time  to  time  be  balanced. 


THE  USE  OF  MONEY.  39 

It  will  not  be  wise  to  interfere  with  chil- 
dren for  the  unwise  use  they  might  make  of 
their  savings,  though  it  may  be  opportune 
to  point  out  to  them  the  folly  of  unnecessary 
expenses,  and  unless  there  are  weighty  rea- 
sons to  the  contrary  there  ought  to  be  no 
prjdng  supervision  of  their  account  books, 
the  main  object  in  view  being,  that  children 
learn  to  make  both  ends  meet. 

It  will  be  good,  too,  if  children  begin 
young  to  earn  money,  but  this  ought  not  to 
be  done  at  the  expense  of  their  education 
nor  in  any  way  that  would  practically 
amount  to  begging,  but  in  actually  accom- 
plishing some  useful  work  that  possesses  a 
value  to  the  party  who  pays  for  it.  And 
the  money  earned  or  saved,  if  not  immedi- 
ately used,  should  be  deposited  in  a  kind  of 
savings  bank,  which  the  parents  will  keep 
for  their  children  or  as  soon  as  it  be  large 
enough  may  be  deposited  in  a  real  bank. 

No  child  is  so  poor  and  none  so  rich  that 
he  does  not  stand  in  need  of  some  practical 
instruction  in  handling  money,  in  saving  it, 
and  in  spending  it  in  the  right  way. 


SQUAKE  DEALING 

There  is  an  innate  desire  among  people  to 
get  something  for  nothing,  or  to  gain  by  a 
reduction  of  prices.  On  this  principle  those 
merchants  base  their  business  who  announce 
that  they  are  enabled  by  bankruptcy  or 
otherwise  to  sell  under  the  manufacturing 
price.  While  I  do  not  deny  that  this  is 
sometimes  possible,  there  is  no  question  that 
some  of  the  goods  bought  in  this  way  rep- 
resent a  smaller  return  for  the  money  paid 
than  the  reduction  promises.  The  man  who 
buys  well-made  goods  at  an  exorbitant  price 
loses  money,  but  he  owns  the  goods.  He 
has  what  he  wanted.  But  he  who  buys  poor 
goods  at  a  reduced  price  loses  both  money 
and  goods,  for  he  gave  away  the  former,  and 
the  latter  are  without  value  and  will  either 
be  useless  or  will  not  serve  the  purpose  for 
which  they  were  bought. 

The  fact  that  cheap  goods  are  ** made,  to 

40 


SQUARE  DEALING.  41 

sell"  is  admirably  set  forth  in  Dr.  John 
Wolcott's  humorous  poem  The  Razor  Seller, 
which  I  quote: 

A  fellow  in  a  market-town, 

Most  musical,  cried  razors  up  and  down, 

And  offered  twelve  for  eighteen  pence; 
Which  certainly  seemed  wondrous  cheap. 
And,  for  the  money,  quite  a  heap, 

As  every  man  would  buy,  with  cash  and 
sense. 

A  country  bumpkin  the  great  offer  heard, — 
Poor  Hodge,  who  suffered  by  a  broad  black 
beard. 
That  seemed  a  shoe-brush  stuck  beneath 
his  nose: 
With  cheerfulness  the  eighteen  pence  he  paid, 
And  proudly  to  himself  in  whispers  said, 
**This  rascal  stole  the  razors,  I  suppose. 

**No  matter  if  the  fellow  be  a  knave, 
Provided  that  the  razors  shave; 

It  certainly  will  be  a  monstrous  prize. ' ' 
So  home  the  clown,  with  his  good  fortune, 

went, 
Smiling,  in  heart  and  soul  content. 
And  quickly  soaped  himself  to  ears  and 
eyes. 


42  OUR  CHILDREN. 

Being  well  lathered  from  a  dish  or  tub, 
Hodge  now  began  with  grinning  pain  to  grub, 

Just  like  a  hedger  cutting  furze; 
*Twas  a  vile  razor ! — then  the  rest  he  tried, — 
All  were  impostors.    *'AhI"  Hodge  sighed, 

'*I   wish   my   eighteen   pence   within   my 
purse." 

In  vain  to  chase  his  beard,  and  bring  the 
graces, 
He  cut,  and  dug,  and  winced,  and  stamped, 
and  swore; 
Brought  blood,  and  danced,  blasphemed,  and 
made  wry  faces. 
And  cursed  each  razor's  body  o'er  and  o'er: 

His  muzzle  formed  of  opposition  stuff, 
Firm  as  a  Foxite,  would  not  lose  its  ruff; 

So  kept  it, — laughing  at  the  steel  and  suds. 
Hodge,  in  a  passion,  stretched  his  angry  jaws, 
Vowing  the  direst  vengeance  with  clenched 
claws. 

On  the  vile  cheat  that  sold  the  goods. 
** Razors!  a  mean,  confounded  dog, 
Not  fit  to  scrape  a  hog!" 

Hodge  sought  the  fellow, — ^found  him, — and 

begun: 
"Perhaps,  Master  Razor-rogue,  to  you  'tis 

fun, 


SQUARE  DEALING.  43 

That  people  flay  themselves  out  of  their 
lives. 
You  rascal !  for  an  hour  have  I  been  grubbing, 
Giving  my  crying  whiskers  here  a  scrubbing, 

With  razors  just  like  oyster  knives. 
Sirrah!  I  tell  you  you're  a  knave, 
To  cry  up  razors  that  can't  shave!'* 

''Friend,"  quoth  the  razor  man,  ''I'm  not  a 
knave. 
As  for  the  razors  you  have  bought. 
Upon  my  soul,  I  never  thought 
That  they  would  shave/' 
"Not  think  they'd  shave!"  quoth  Hodge,  with 
wondering  eyes. 
And  voice  not  much  unlike  an  Indian  yell ; 
"What  were  they  made  for,  then,  you  dog?" 
he  cries. 
''Made,'*  quoth  the  fellow  with  a  smile, — 
"to  sell." 

It  is  sad,  but  nevertheless  true,  that  most 
people  who  are  cheated  in  life  are  deceived 
by  their  own  desire  to  deceive.  For  in- 
stance, there  is  a  trick  among  gamblers, 
which  rarely  fails  among  the  uninitiated. 
The  gambler  who  plays  puts  down  three 
cards  and  requests  those  present  to  bet  on 
one  of  them.    While  putting  down  the  cards, 


44  OUR  CHILDREN. 

there  is  a  disturbance  somewhere  behind  the 
gambler,  and  he  indignantly  turns  round, 
requesting  the  people  to  be  quiet,  and  this 
moment  of  his  apparent  inattention  is 
utilized  by  a  bystander  who  lifts  up  one  of 
the  cards,  show^s  it  to  some  others,  and  puts 
it  down  again.  It  is  done  quickly  enough 
not  to  be  noticeable  to  the  gambler.  But 
woe  to  him  who  imagines  that  on  the 
strength  of  this  deception  he  can  risk  his 
money  on  the  exposed  card.  For,  when  the 
card  is  turned  up  it  proves  to  be  different 
from  the  one  he  has  seen.  The  man  who 
lifts  up  and  shows  the  card  belongs  to  the 
gang;  he  is  an  adept  in  sleight  of  hand  and 
before  he  puts  the  card  down  again  he  re- 
places it  by  another  one.  There  are  always 
plenty  of  people  who,  if  they  but  have  a 
chance  to  deceive  their  fellowmen,  venture 
to  do  so,  and  thus  they  are  gulled  by  their 
own  evil  desires  and  have  no  reason  to  com- 
plain about  it. 

The  bait  which  will  catch  the  unwary  with 
the  greatest  ease  is  flattery.  Vain  people 
are  most  easily  inveigled  and  defrauded  by 


SQUARE  DEALING.  46 

praise,  or  by  propositions  that  appeal  to  a 
sense  of  their  own  importance,  or  fame,  or 
ability.  The  fable  of  the  fox  and  the  crow 
repeats  itself  more  frequently  than  any 
other  allegorical  story,  and  it  is  worth  while 
to  have  our  children  learn  it  by  heart  so 
that  they  will  remember  the  lesson. 

Let  us  teach  children  at  an  early  age  and 
as  soon  as  they  can  comprehend  it,  not  by 
moralizing,  but  by  practical  instances  such 
as  they  observe  in  their  surroundings,  that 
the  employment  of  tricks  never  pays;  and 
that  they  should  look  with  suspicion  on 
every  one  who  invites  them  to  gain  by  an- 
other's loss  or  by  deception.  To  gain  by 
cheating  others  is  always  a  doubtful  advan- 
tage, and  therefore,  as  a  mere  matter  of 
prudence,  it  should  not  be  practised.  In 
fact,  one  must  become  a  professional  trick- 
ster, or  gambler,  in  order  to  succeed  in  the 
profession  of  cheating.  A  bird  that  is 
caught  tightens  the  noose  by  its  own  move- 
ments. So  a  country  clown,  when  victi- 
mized by  a  gang  of  tricksters,  as  a  rule  him- 
self closes  the  snare  into  which  he  falls. 


SYMPATHY  WITH  ANIMALS 

It  is  well  to  impress  children  at  an  early 
age  with  the  truth  that  animals  are  sentient 
creatures  as  we  are.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
make  children  sentimental  or  to  avoid  tell- 
ing them  that  animals  are  used  for  meat; 
but  they  should  not  witness  such  scenes  as 
the  slaughter  of  chickens,  or  pigs,  or  other 
creatures.  Our  Western  civilization  is  in 
many  respects,  and,  indeed,  in  its  most  im- 
portant features,  superior  to  all  other  civili- 
zations, but  it  is  inferior  to  Hindu  habits,  in 
so  far  as  it  has  no  proper  sympathy  with 
animal  life.  I  read,  for  instance,  in  an 
otherwise  good  book,  the  title  of  which  is 
The  American  Boy's  Handy  Book,  on  page 
386,  the  following  passage: 

**Mr.  Fred  Holder,  the  celebrated  naturalist 
and  writer  of  boys '  books  on  natural  history,  is 
responsible  for  'the  goose  fisherman,'  which  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  live  goose,  with 

40 


SYMPATHY  WITH  ANIMALS.  47 

a  line  and  spoon-hook  attached  to  one  leg.  Mr. 
or  Mrs.  Goose  is  driven  into  the  water  and 
forced  to  swim,  which,  owing  to  the  nature  of 
the  bird,  is  not  a  difficult  or  disagreeable  task. 

''As  the  bird  swims,  using  its  feet  as  paddles 
to  propel  itself,  the  spoon  at  the  head  of  the  line 
is  jerked  along  in  a  most  interesting  manner  to 
the  fish,  and  if  there  are  any  pickerel,  with  their 
voracious  appetites  to  spur  them  on,  they  can- 
not often  restrain  themselves,  but  needs  must 
seize  what,  to  them,  appears  to  be  a  fat,  shiny, 
young  fish,  but  which  they  learn  to  their  sorrow 
to  be  a  hard  metal  snare. 

''Then  the  fun  begins.  The  goose  feels 
something  tugging  at  its  leg,  and  becomes  ex- 
cited. The  unfortunate  fish  plunges  about,  only 
to  drive  the  cruel  barbs  deeper  into  its  car- 
tilaginous mouth,  and  make  escape  impossible. 

"Finding,  as  it  supposes,  a  hidden  enemy  in 
the  water,  the  bird  seeks  refuge  on  the  shore, 
where  its  master  gleefully  unhooks  the  fish,  and 
starts  the  bird  on  another  trip.'* 

What  a  barbarous  game!  Can  there  be 
any  better  mode  of  teaching  boys  cruelty? 
And  what  will  be  the  result  of  an  education 
in  which  the  distress  of  a  goose  is  thought 
to  be  exciting  fun?  The  game  is  not  so 
cruel  as  many  other  sports,  but  it  is  cer- 


48  OUR  CHILDREN. 

tainly  calculated  to  harden  a  boy's  heart  to 
the  sufferings  of  helpless  animals.  Hunt- 
ing and  fishing  are  good  out-door  exercises, 
but  they  can  be  tolerated  only  on  the  con- 
dition that  the  mind  shall  not  dwell  on  the 
havoc  which  is  caused  in  animal  life.  The 
sole  inducement  to  himting  and  fishing 
ought  to  consist  in  the  exercise  it  affords, 
and  perhaps  also  in  the  difficulties  which  the 
pursuit  of  the  game  offers. 

I,  for  one,  cannot  understand  how  a  man 
can  shoot  at  a  deer  that  does  not  run  away 
but  confidently  and  boldly  faces  the  hunter. 
That  hunting  and  fishing  are  sports  is  a 
mark  of  barbarism.  They  ought  to  be 
simply  a  business,  engaged  in  on  account 
of  the  necessity  of  killing  a  certain  num- 
ber of  animals  either  for  food,  or  because 
of  the  danger  of  their  becoming  a  plague  to 
the  country,  as  in  the  case  of  the  rabbits  in 
California,  which  have  to  be  killed  because 
they  destroy  the  harvest,  and  because  their 
rapid  increase  makes  it  a  question  whether 
they  or  man  shall  inhabit  the  country. 

A  disinclination  to  regard  hunting  as  a 


SYMPATHY  WITH  ANIMALS.  49 

noble  sport  may  appear  sentimental;  but  I 
am  happy  to  say  that  a  man  who,  if  he 
lacked  any  virtue,  lacked  in  sentimentality, 
cherished  the  same  opinion.  Frederick  the 
Great,  who  is  unexcelled  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  as  a  warrior  and  general,  had  a 
great  contempt  for  hunting,  and  declared 
that  there  w^as  as  little  enjoyment  in  killing 
deer  as  there  was  in  butchering  calves.  But 
Frederick  was  an  exception  on  the  throne, 
for  hunting  has  always  been,  and  is  still,  a 
royal  sport,  and  the  slaughter  of  game  by 
many  sovereigns  is  looked  upon  as  a  very 
important  practice  in  their  lives. 

The  only  hunting  worthy  of  man  is  the 
lion  or  tiger  hunt,  which  is  heroic  and  means 
salvation  of  life  by  the  destruction  of  those 
creatures  that  are  destructive  to  it.  But 
most  of  the  hunting  that  is  actually  done  is 
little  better  than  mere  slaughter,  the  worst 
sport  being  coursing,  for  which  the  animals 
are  first  caught  and  are  then  let  loose  for 
the  purpose  of  being  hunted  to  death. 


DON'T  SAY  DONT 

There  are  two  interpretations  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Fall  and  the  scheme  of  sal- 
vation that  was  held  among  the  school  men 
of  mediaeval  Christianity.  One  regards  the 
fall  of  man  as  a  break  in  God's  plan,  while 
the  other  one  represents  the  view  that  it  was 
God's  intention  to  let  man  pass  through  sin 
to  salvation;  for  without  sin  man  would 
never  have  acquired  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  which  forms  the  climax  of  his  simi- 
larity to  God.  Adherents  of  the  former 
view  belonged  to  the  school  of  Nominalists 
while  the  latter  showed  an  inclination 
toward  Realism.  The  former  regarded  our 
present  world  as  one  particular  anomalous 
accident,  and  would  at  the  same  time  insist 
on  the  dogma  of  the  cosmocentricity  of  the 
earth,  which  means  that  the  earth  is  the 
stage  on  which  alone  God  became  flesh  and 
revealed  himself  in  Christ.    All  the  other 

60 


DON'T  SAY   "DON'T."  51 

planets,  the  sun  and  the  moon,  and  all  the 
fixed  stars,  exist  simply  for  the  sake  of  the 
earth  as  lights  that  might  serve  to  make 
time-measurements  for  himian  purposes. 
On  earth  man  was  created  to  be  tempted, 
and  when  he  had  fallen  God  would  set  all 
the  armies  of  angels  in  motion  and  come 
down  upon  earth  himself  to  redeem  him 
from  perdition.  This  is  the  view  of  those 
who  regard  every  experience  of  theirs  as  a 
particular  case,  and  who  see  in  universals 
no  truly  universal  features  but  mere 
** names"  (in  Latin  nomina),  a  definition 
from  which  the  name  *' nominalism"  has 
been  derived.  Their  adversaries,  the  Real- 
ists, were  inclined  to  look  upon  every  par- 
ticular case  as  an  instance  of  universal  law, 
and  thus  they  were  inclined  to  regard  man's 
fall  not  as  an  accident,  but  as  a  necessity. 
They  argued  that  man  fell  because  God 
wanted  him  to  fall.  And  how  could  the 
good  tidings  of  the  God-man  have  been  pos- 
sible if  man  had  not  to  rise  from  a  lower 
state  to  a  higher,  if  he  had  been  and  re- 
mained  from   the   beginning   perfect   and 


62  OUR  CHILDREN. 

without  sin'?  How  could  there  have  been 
any  worth  in  his  character  if  he  simply  were 
good  because  he  was  created  good?  No, 
man  had  to  work  out  his  salvation  for  him- 
self, he  had  to  establish  his  own  good  char- 
acter, and  that  feature  in  man  which  ac- 
complished his  salvation  is  God  himself! 
Thus,  according  to  the  philosophy  of  the 
Realists,  the  earth  would  be  a  typical  case 
for  any  possible  world  on  which  life  de- 
velops, and  the  consistent  conclusion  would 
be  to  say  that  the  same  events  naturally  and 
necessarily  take  place  in  other  worlds.  On 
all  of  them  we  should  find  sinners,  on  all 
of  them  error  and  evil,  yet  at  the  same  time 
on  all  of  them  God  would  appear  in  the 
flesh  and  would  teach  men  that  self-sacri- 
ficing love  is  the  way  of  salvation.  And 
further,  what  would  Christ  or  Saviour  mean 
but  an  actualization  of  this  self-sacrificing 
love? 

Whatever  these  two  schools  may  pretend, 
this  much  is  sure:  when,  according  to  the 
legend  told  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis, 
the  Lord  put  the  man  he  had  created  in  the 


DONT  SAY   "DON'T."  63 

Garden  of  Eden,  and  said  to  him  with  re- 
gard to  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  ''Thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it,"  the 
man,  as  soon  as  left  at  liberty  to  do  as  he 
pleased,  would  not  and  could  not  fail  to 
disobey  the  command. 

As  the  story  stands  God  must  have  had 
the  intention  to  make  man  fall.  Otherwise 
the  Ophites,  the  Syrian  Gnostics  who  be- 
lieved in  the  divinity  of  the  serpent,  would 
have  been  right  when  they  declared  that 
Yahveh  was  an  inferior  God,  who,  himself 
a  slave  of  passions,  like  wrath,  jealousy, 
vengeance,  etc.,  wanted  to  keep  man  igno- 
rant. The  highest  God,  however,  the  God  of 
love,  mercy,  and  wisdom,  sent  the  serpent  as 
the  first  messenger  of  the  gliosis  to  aspire 
for  knowledge  and  prepare  mankind  for  the 
arrival  of  Christ. 

If  you  wish  a  child  to  perform  a  certain 
act  on  its  own  accord,  and  not  at  your  re- 
quest, you  need  only  tell  him  **Do  not  do 
it,"  and  he  will  be  sure  to  do  it.  You  may 
by  force  or  by  fear  prevent  a  boy  from  be- 
ing disobedient,  but  you  cannot  prevent  him 


54  OUR  CHILDREN. 

from  feeling  the  itching  in  his  fingers  to  do 
what  is  forbidden.  All  the  various  injunc- 
tions so  freely  given  to  children  are  so  many 
temptations  to  become  disobedient. 

A  little  party  of  children  had  thrown  sev- 
eral boxes  of  blocks  down  stairs,  which 
would  have  given  the  nurse  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  to  pick  up.  They  enjoyed  the  joke 
greatly,  but  when  a  waggish  uncle  told  them 
that  for  a  punishment  the  blocks  should  re- 
main down  stairs  and  that  no  one  should  be 
allowed  to  bring  them  up  again,  the  little 
urchins  started  at  once  to  carry  every  block 
up,  and  the  joy  of  being  disobedient  beamed 
in  their  eyes. 

Hence  the  lesson.  Don't  say  ''don't"  to 
your  children.  Do  not  forbid.  Do  not 
lead  them  into  the  temptation  to  become  dis- 
obedient; in  other  words,  respect  their  lib- 
erty and  allow  them  to  act  foolishly,  if  they 
prefer  to  do  so  at  their  own  risk. 

But  the  objection  may  be  made:  ** Chil- 
dren must  be  educated,  and  education  con- 
sists precisely  in  teaching  them  what  not 
to    do."     That    is    quite    true.     But    the 


DON'T  SAY   "DON'T."  66 

method  of  teaching  them  what  they  should 
not  do  ought  not  to  consist  in  prohibitions. 

If  you  do  not  want  the  baby  to  walk  down 
stairs  because  he  will  hurt  himself  and  is 
liable  to  fall,  let  him  try,  and  let  him  by 
his  own  experience  find  that  he  runs  a  risk 
when  going  down.  Tell  him  he  will  fall, 
but  do  not  forbid  him:  Don't  say  ''don't." 
When  approaching  the  stairs  for  the  first 
time,  watch  over  him  so  that  he  does  not 
do  himself  serious  harm,  but  let  him  experi- 
ence the  fear  of  falling,  and  warn  him  that 
he  will  hurt  himself.  If  he  disregards  the 
warning,  it  is  better  for  him  to  be  suffi- 
ciently frightened  by  a  fall  to  remember  it. 

If  a  child  approaches  the  stove  or  the  fire- 
place, warn  him  in  the  same  way;  tell  him 
"hot,"  "hot,"  and  if  the  child  does  not 
mind,  let  him  burn  himself  a  little.  The 
nurse's  business  is  simply  to  see  to  it  that 
he  does  not  meet  with  a  serious  accident, 
not  to  hinder  him  from  making  unpleasant 
but  valuable  experiences.  You  will  find 
that  children  who  are  informed  about  the 
evil  consequences   of  certain   actions   will 


56  OUR  CHILDREN. 

mind  the  warning  much  better  than  the  chil- 
dren who  are  forbidden  to  eat  an  apple  for 
no  reason  whatever.  That  apple  will  ap- 
pear **  pleasant  to  the  sight  and  good  for 
food,"  more  so  than  any  other  fruit  that 
may  be  around. 

When  children  want  more  sweetmeats, 
more  strawberry  shortcake,  or  more  ice 
cream  than  is  good  for  them,  give  them  a 
fair  warning.  Tell  them,  **I  should  like  to 
eat  more  of  it  myself,  but  I  believe  I  shall 
ruin  my  stomach  and  be  sick  if  I  do ;  there- 
fore I  don't."  If  the  children  are  strong 
enough  and  can  stand  a  disordered  stomach, 
it  may  be  advisable  to  let  them  once  or  twice 
take  more  and  let  them  find  out  themselves 
what  an  abused  stomach  means.  But  when 
a  child  falls  sick  and  when  its  stomach  re- 
volts, the  best  plan  is  to  sit  by  his  bedside 
and  help  him  pass  in  review  all  the  things 
he  has  eaten  on  the  previous  day,  and  then 
to  say  to  him  without  reproach:  **I  believe 
you  ate  too  much  ice  cream,"  or  whatever 
it  may  have  been,  *'and  I  would  not  eat  so 
much  again.    It  is  unpleasant  to  be  sick, 


DON'T  SAY   "DON'T."  57 

and  it  is  after  all  the  same  taste  whether 
you  eat  one  or  two  dishes." 

Sickness  is  a  good  teacher  of  self-control 
in  eating,  but  parents  must  improve  the  oc- 
casion and  help  the  child  to  discover  the 
cause  of  its  indisposition. 

You  cannot  educate  children  by  pun- 
ishments. You  must  make  them,  so  far  as 
possible,  feel  the  evil  results  of  their  actions, 
and  the  insight  into  the  causation  of  good 
and  evil  will  exercise  a  better  and  more  edu- 
cational influence  than  the  fear  of  the  rod 
or  the  sting  of  bitter  reproaches. 

The  child  will  be  an  echo  of  your  own 
behavior.  Scolding  makes  him  a  scold  and 
severity  renders  him  resentful. 


TREATMENT  OF  A  NAUGHTY  CHILD 

There  is  a  peculiar  difficulty  in  treating 
children  when  they  become  naughty.  They 
scream,  they  howl,  and  become  obstinate  to 
all  moralizing.  Their  bad  temper  becomes 
part  of  themselves,  and  to  relent  naturally 
appears  to  them  a  self-surrender. 

What  is  to  be  done  in  such  a  case  ?  Shall 
educators  break  the  will  of  the  child  as  is 
often  proposed,  or  shall  they  yield  and  let 
him  have  his  will?  Neither  seems  to  be 
practical,  for,  on  the  one  hand,  instead  of 
breaking  the  will  we  ought  to  strengthen  it, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  instead  of  yielding 
to  his  will,  we  ought  to  lead  it  and  direct  it 
in  its  tendencies.  Will  in  itself  is  neither 
good  nor  bad ;  and  strength  of  will  is  rather 
a  virtue  than  a  vice,  but  the  goodness  of  a 
will  depends  on  the  aim  toward  which  it 
tends. 

A   child's   soul,   accordingly,   should   be 

68 


A  NAUGHTY  CHILD.  09 

treated  as  what  it  naturally  is,  a  living  com- 
monwealth  of  various  and  frequently  con- 
tradictory tendencies.  And  in  doing  so,  it 
is  advisable  to  identify  those  tendencies 
that  are  to  be  cherished  and  strengthened 
with  the  child's  self,  but  to  brand  those 
which  we  wish  to  remove  as  foreign  ele- 
ments that  are  to  be  discarded.  They  are 
like  the  injurious  offshoots  of  fruit  trees 
which  have  to  be  pruned.  If  the  naughti- 
ness of  the  child  be  treated  as  something 
that  he  is  possessed  of,  as  a  mental  poison 
that  he  has  to  expel  from  his  mental  system, 
as  demons  and  devils  such  as  Jesus  cast  out 
according  to  the  Gospel  stories, —  educators 
will  far  more  easily  regain  the  good-will 
of  their  little  rebel  if  they  allow  him  to 
capitulate  mthout  suffering  a  humiliation. 
Here  a  combination  of  two  principles  ap- 
pears to  be  of  advantage:  first,  the  divert- 
ing of  the  attention  of  the  child  from  the 
cause  that  produced  his  ill  behavior,  and 
secondly,  the  personifying  his  rudeness  with 
a  bad  boy  that  has  entered  his  little  self. 
Address  the  child,  saying:  "  There  is  a  bad 


60  OUR  CHILDREN. 

little  boy  in  you,  come  quick,  let  us  cast 
him  out,''  and  then  begin  a  chase  after  the 
imagined  bad  boy.  The  pursuit  will  give 
joy  to  the  child  who  will  soon  understand 
the  joke  and  with  shining  eyes  delightedly 
help  to  expel  the  little  devil  whom  he  learns 
to  consider  as  the  cause  of  his  bad  behavior. 

Afterwards  he  will  learn  no  longer  to  ad- 
mit the  bad  boy,  but  to  expel  him  before  he 
is  able  to  do  any  mischief.  At  any  rate  he 
will  be  able  to  distinguish  between  himself 
and  the  evil  that  might  originate  in  him, 
and  will  thus  preserve  his  self-esteem  and 
there  will  be  no  need  of  breaking  his  will 
in  the  interest  of  good  behavior. 

The  methods  of  casting  out  bad  boys  may 
be  changed  as  physicians  may  employ  vari- 
ous medicines  for  attaining  the  same  effect. 
Sometimes  it  is  advisable  to  pull  out  the 
bad  boy  as  the  dentist  might  pull  a  tooth, 
which  may  be  done  with  a  corkscrew  after 
the  manner  of  uncorking  a  bottle.  Another 
practical  method  which  can  be  highly  rec- 
ommended is  the  employment  of  pincers. 
The  little  fellow  must  open  his  mouth  for 


A  NAUGHTY  CHILD.  61 

inspection,  for  the  bad  boy  is  supposed  to 
sit  inside,  in  the  place  whence  the  shrieks 
proceed.  The  opening  of  the  mouth  will  of 
course  stop  further  crying,  and  now  you 
can  give  some  information  about  the  little 
shrieking  imp  inside  who  must  be  caught 
with  the  pincers.  *^  Keep  still,"  you  tell 
the  child,  ''  I'll  catch  him  with  the  pincers 
and  take  him  out ;  and  then  you  will  be  our 
good  boy  again !  "  From  a  quite  varied  ex- 
perience in  these  experiments,  I  found  that 
the  method  works  well  and  the  child  enters 
into  this  theatrical  performance  of  a  mod- 
ernized exorcism  with  great  readiness.  He 
accustoms  himself  to  speak  of  the  prior 
naughtiness  as  something  foreign  to  his  bet- 
ter self  and  will  easily  understand  the  de- 
sirability of  ridding  himself  of  bad  and  un- 
worthy qualities,  of  anger,  malevolence, 
envy,  and  other  passions  or  vices. 

A  similar  method  is  applicable  when  chil- 
dren, as  they  frequently  will  do,  hurt  them- 
selves and  begin  to  cry.  If  the  pain  is  not 
serious  and  will  pass  away  as  soon  as  their 
attention  is  called  to  something  else,  a  good 


62  OUR  CHILDREN. 

plan  is  to  post  them  at  one  end  of  the  hall, 
or  at  one  corner  of  the  table,  fasten  the  pain 
with  fictitious  nails  to  the  spot  where  they 
stand  and  then  bid  them  run  away.  In 
speeding  along  the  hall  or  running  round 
the  table,  they  will  quickly  overcome  their 
trouble.  The  activity  of  running  works  up 
an  increased  circulation  and  it  will  not  be 
long  before  they  forget  their  pain. 

Under  no  circumstances  does  it  seem  ad- 
visable to  pity  children  or  to  join  in  their 
complaints,  even  though  they  may  be  justi- 
fied. Commiseration  makes  a  child  dissat- 
isfied and  you  can  bring  the  happiest  child 
to  tears  simply  by  pitying  it  for  anything, 
however  ridiculous  your  compassion  may  be. 

Do  not  show  anxiety,  for  thereby  you 
make  the  child  anxious.  Do  not  show  any 
worry  about  his  bad  habits,  for  thus  he  will 
be  worried  himself  and  you  weaken  his  char- 
acter. Show  a  simple  and  straightforward 
determination  to  help  the  child  to  discard 
what  is  undesirable  in  the  makeup  of  his 
soul,  and  he  will  naturally  acquire  the  habit 
of  ridding  himself  of  the  petty  vices  of 


A  NAUGHTY  CHILD.  63 

childhood  before  they  can  harden  into 
habits. 

All  these  methods  can  be  intensified  by  a 
review  of  the  past  in  calm  hours.  The  fath- 
er and  the  mother  must  be  the  child's  most 
intimate  friends  and  counselors.  They 
ought  to  tell  him  when  they  are  alone  with 
him,  what  they  themselves  think  of  this  or 
that  naughtiness;  what  other  people  think 
of  it;  what  will  be  the  consequences;  ask 
him  how  he  would  like  the  same  behavior  in 
others ;  and  finally  tell  him  how  to  mend  the 
fault  and  how  to  avoid  it  in  the  future. 
There  should  be  no  scolding  at  such  a  mo- 
ment, for  that  would  disturb  the  calmness 
of  the  child's  mind.  In  order  to  render 
this  instruction  effective,  not  for  the  mo- 
ment only,  but  for  the  child's  whole  life,  it 
should  be  a  lesson  of  self-contemplation  and 
a  calm  self-criticism. 

When  the  child  grows  older,  he  should 
gradually  acquire  the  habit  of  exercising 
this  self-criticism  for  himself ;  and  here  it  is 
advisable  to  call  the  child's  early  attention 
to  the  dangers  of  vanity. 


STIMULATE  SELF-CRITICISM 

While  strength  of  will  is  a  virtue,  vanity 
is  a  vice.  Vanity  is  the  most  dangerous 
demon  that  can  take  hold  of  us,  for  vanity 
renders  self-criticism  impossible. 

Every  child  will  be  able  to  grasp  the  im- 
portance and  paramount  usefulness  of  self- 
criticism.  Only  tell  him  the  story  of  a  man 
who  always  blamed  others  when  he  did  some 
foolish  thing,  and  who,  adhering  to  the  be- 
lief in  his  own  perfection,  remained  a  fool 
all  his  lifetime.  He  gathered  a  rich  store 
of  bad  experiences  and  came  finally  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  whole  world  was  wrong, 
—  but  the  world  thought  all  the  while  there 
was  something  wrong  with  him.  On  the 
other  hand,  illustrate  by  the  examples  of 
great  men,  that  great  successes  are  never 
gained  without  a  stern  self-criticism.  Self- 
complacency  may  create  a  very  happy  dis- 
position, but  this  happiness  will  not  be  aus- 

64 


STIMULATE  SELF-CRITICISM.  66 

picious;  it  will  be  the  happiness  of  lucky 
Hans  who  joyfully  exchanges  his  gold  for 
a  horse,  his  horse  for  a  cow,  his  cow  for  a 
pig,  his  pig  for  a  goose,  his  goose  for  a 
grindstone,  and  when  the  grindstone  drops 
into  a  well,  glories  in  his  having  so  fortu- 
nately got  rid  of  his  burden.  The  way  to 
success  ill  life  is  the  very  opposite  to  self- 
complacency  and  is  incompatible  with  van- 
ity. When  the  foolish  man  complains  about 
the  wrongs  of  others,  the  wise  man,  when- 
ever ill  fate  befalls  him,  inquires  first  into 
the  origin  of  his  own  mistakes.  So,  for  in- 
stance, when  he  is  cheated,  he  does  not  glory 
in  his  own  honesty  and  blame  only  the  ras- 
cal who  cheated  him.  He  blames  instead, 
his  own  credulity  and  his  lack  of  experience 
not  to  have  seen  through  the  schemes  by 
which  he  has  been  caught. 

Remember  that  the  net  in  which  most  peo- 
ple are  caught  is  their  own  vanity.  La 
Fontaine  tells  the  instructive  fable  of  the 
raven  and  the  fox  and  adds  that  the  raven, 
seeing  his  own  foolishness,  vowed  that  he 
would   never   be   caught   again.     But   the 


66  OUR  CHILDREN. 

probability  is  that  a  vain  fellow  would  not 
have  blamed  himself ;  he  would  have  scolded 
about  the  imtrustworthiness  of  people  and 
the  frauds  of  foxes,  but  would  have  again 
fallen  an  easy  prey  to  the  next  flatterer  who 
approached  him  in  the  same  or  a  similar 
manner.  None  of  the  animals  in  RejTiard 
the  Fox  blames  himself,  but  all  denounce 
the  fox's  villainy. 

What  appears  to  us  a  misfortune  is  fre- 
quently the  result  of  a  bad  quality  in  our 
character.  Gamblers  are  in  the  habit  of 
catching  their  victims  by  first  giving  them 
a  chance  to  cheat;  tricky  agents  make  you 
believe  that  they  sell  under  price;  dishon- 
est lawyers  give  you  a  chance  to  make  a  con- 
tract in  which  you  believe  that  you  cheat 
some  one  else,  while  in  fact  you  are  being 
cheated. 

Considering  the  truth  that  our  own  petty 
vices  are  the  greatest  dangers  of  our  life, 
we  must  early  teach  children  to  regard  them 
as  foreign  elements  which  they  should  cast 
off,  through  self-criticism  and  a  rigorous 
self -discipline. 


DO  NOT  PUNISH 

Since  the  days  of  barbarism  a  constant 
change  in  the  treatment  of  pmiishment  has 
been  going  on  in  civilized  countries.  The 
old  method  was  a  system  of  retaliation. 
Punishment  is  revenge.  The  new  method 
which  replaces  punishment  by  correction 
may  be  called,  briefly,  a  system  of  education. 
The  turning  point  in  the  evolutionary  curve 
of  mankind  is  of  a  religious  nature.  It  ap- 
pears first  as  goodwill  toward  aU,  the  good 
and  the  bad  alike,  and  in  the  history  of  the 
East  in  Buddha's  teaching,  it  is  based  on  the 
consideration  that  all  creatures,  both  good 
and  evil,  are  the  product  of  circumstances, 
and  that  therefore  the  bad  deserve  compas- 
sion, not  hatred.  If  a  man's  character  is 
conditioned  by  his  past,  by  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  was  developed,  there  is  no 
longer  any  sense  in  expecting  that  he  should 
act  differently  from  what  he  does  according 

67 


68  OUR  CHILDREN. 

to  his  nature.  Every  creature  is  as  its  own 
life  history,  since  the  beginning  of  life  on 
earth,  has  formed  it ;  and  as  it  is,  so  it  will 
act.  There  is  no  cause  for  becoming  excited 
about  criminal  actions.  "We  must  imder- 
stand  them,  we  must  above  all  investigate 
their  motives,  and  must  treat  them  in  the 
same  way  as  a  physician  treats  a  disease. 
That  society,  or  the  government,  or  the 
judge,  should  commit  a  crime  on  the  crim- 
inal because  the  criminal  has  committed  a 
crime  on  society,  is  as  ridiculous  as  it  would 
be  to  inflict  upon  the  stomach  a  stomach- 
ache because  by  its  indigestion  it  has  pro- 
duced a  head-ache  or  otherwise  injured  the 
fellow-limbs  of  its  organism.  Retaliation  is 
a  continuation  of  moral  disease,  not  a  cure, 
and  what  we  need  is  a  cure.  Taking  this 
ground,  Buddha  abolished  in  the  realm  of 
religion  the  idea  of  hatred  and  revenge  by 
saying  that  hatred  is  not  appeased  by  ha- 
tred. Hatred  ceases  by  non-hatred  only. 
And  in  the  same  spirit  Christ  taught  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  (Matt.  v.  38-39),  say- 
ing: 


DO  NOT  PUNISH.  69 

"Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  An  eye 
for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth:  But  I  say 
unto  you,  That  ye  resist  not  evil." 

We  need  not  discuss  theology  in  this  place, 
and  do  not  care  in  this  connection  whether 
Christ's  doctrine  was  really  an  absolute  non- 
resistance  of  evil,  as  is  maintained  in  this 
and  the  following  sentences.  We  only  point 
out  the  truth  of  the  sentiment  which 
prompted  these  sayings  and  which  should 
be  expressed  in  the  sentence:  ''Resist  not 
evil  with  evil."  Evil  must  be  resisted;  but 
we  must  not  retaliate.  Instead  of  demand- 
ing a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  giving  a  lie  for 
a  lie,  we  must  overcome  a  lie  by  truth,  wrong 
by  right,  and  violence  by  patience.  This 
ideal  of  Buddhism  and  of  Christianity  has 
not  been  introduced  into  our  law  books,  but 
is  an  ideal  which  mankind  in  its  further 
progress  of  evolution  is  endeavoring  to 
actualize.  Justice  during  the  Middle  Ages 
was  to  a  great  extent  an  administration  of 
retaliating  pimishments.  Criminals  con- 
demned to  die  were  pinched  with  red  hot 
tongs,  their  limbs  were  broken  on  the  wheel, 


70  OUR  CHILDREN. 

they  were  burned  alive,  and  all  kinds  of 
cruel  tortures  were  cunningly  invented  to 
make  the  death  of  the  criminal  as  painful 
as  possible. 

All  this  has  changed.  Capital  punish- 
ment, above  all,  has  ceased  to  be  a  retali- 
ation, and  has  become  more  and  more  a  mere 
protection  against  the  repetition  of  a  crime. 
As  it  would  be  wrong  to  leave  a  tiger  abroad, 
so  a  man,  who  by  his  very  nature  is  a  mur- 
derer, should  not  be  allowed  to  remain  at 
liberty,  and  since  imprisonment  is  on  the  one 
hand  not  a  sufficient  guarantee  for  the  safety 
of  society,  and  on  the  other  hand  a  more 
cruel  treatment  than  death,  capital  punish- 
ment is,  so  far  as  our  civilization  goes,  still 
a  necessity  of  our  penal  law.  Yet  the  at- 
tempt is  no  longer  made  to  retaliate  on  the 
mm^derer  the  cruelties  which  he  has  commit- 
ted. It  is  a  maxim  which  has  never  been 
explicitly  introduced  by  law,  but  which  is 
nevertheless  firmly  established  in  all  civil- 
ized countries,  that  the  death  punishment 
should  be  inflicted  with  as  little  pain  as  pos- 
sible.   The  criminal  is  simply  no  longer  al- 


DO  NOT  PUNISH.  71 

lowed  to  live,  and  capital  punishment  has 
ceased  to  be  a  revenge  or  retaliation.  It 
has  become  a  cure  based  upon  the  experience 
that  the  man  who  commits  a  murder  is  liable 
to  commit  another  murder.  Hence  a  mur- 
derer who  has  killed  a  man  not  on  account 
of  his  murderous  inclination,  but  through 
an  unhappy  complication  of  circumstances, 
be  it  in  defence  of  his  honor,  or  for  some 
other  reason  which  is  regarded  as  a  sufficient 
explanation  of  an  imusual  and  justifiable 
wrath,  will  not  be  treated  as  a  habitual  mur- 
derer, and  according  to  the  laws  of  all  civil- 
ized countries,  is  not  punishable  by  death. 

Our  penal  laws  are  not  as  yet  fully 
adapted  to  the  new  view.  All  the  minor 
punishments  are  still  based  upon  the  plan 
of  retaliation  which  makes  our  prisons  and 
penitentiaries  breeding-places  of  crime  in- 
stead of  what  they  ought  to  be,  moral  hos- 
pitals. There  is  no  question,  however,  that 
the  more  rational  treatment  of  the  criminal 
will  in  time  be  brought  about.  The  result 
will  as  surely  take  place  as  the  religious  con- 
siderations of  justice  towards  our  fallen  fel- 


72  OUR  CHILDREN. 

lowmen  and  a  scientific  consideration  of 
crime  as  a  moral  disease  will  in  the  long  run 
change  our  methods  in  education  as  well  as 
in  the  administration  of  justice. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood.  My 
advocacy  of  an  abolition  of  punishment  as 
punishment  should  not  be  interpreted  as  due 
to  that  maudlin  sympathy  with  criminals 
which  is  often  met  with  among  sentimental 
people.  The  criminal  behind  the  bars  ought 
not  to  be  pampered,  but  should  receive 
prison  diet  and  prison  treatment  as  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  regulations  of  the  place 
where  liis  own  deeds  have  landed  him.  It  is 
part  of  the  cure.  The  execution  of  a  mur- 
derer is  merely  the  removal  of  a  dangerous 
member  of  society,  for  the  same  reason  that 
a  limb  of  the  body  infected  by  blood  iDoison- 
ing  must  be  amputated. 

What  our  courts  of  justice  ought  to  be 
and  ought  to  become,  parents  must  realize 
on  a  smaller  scale  in  the  education  of  their 
children.  There  ought  to  be  no  punishment 
of  children  in  the  old  and  proper  sense  of 
punishment.    Punishment,  if  we  are  per- 


DO  NOT  PUNISH.  73 

mitted  to  use  the  old  word  in  a  more  general 
sense,  ought  to  become  a  method  of  educa^ 
tion,  and  ought  to  cease  inflicting  pain  with- 
out any  ulterior  purpose.  Punishment 
ought  to  be  nothing  but  the  consequences 
of  a  wrong  act  which  is  brought  home  to  the 
knowledge  and  sentiments  of  the  child.  As 
a  rule,  parents  do  just  the  reverse.  They 
make  the  children  escape  the  evil  conse- 
quences of  wrong  doing,  and  let  them  feel  a 
punishment,  the  reason  of  which  must  nat- 
urally appear  as  the  expression  of  wrath  or 
ill-will.  If  a  child  breaks  things,  it  ought, 
if  possible,  be  made  to  feel  the  loss  of  the 
broken  thing.  Suppose  he  has  broken  his 
own  glass,  then  it  should  not  be  replaced  at 
once  by  a  new  one.  If  it  is  the  glass  of  his 
brother  or  sister,  he  ought  to  give  up  his 
own  to  replace  the  loss,  and  if  possible  some 
arrangement  should  be  made  to  let  the  harm 
that  he  has  caused  fall,  at  least  in  part,  upon 
himself. 

There  is  perhaps  no  harm  for  parents  to 
show  anger  if  children  become  very  mis- 
chievous, but  the  anger  should  be  felt  by 


74  OUR  CHILDREN. 

the  child  to  be  the  direct  result  of  his  ac- 
tion. 

There  is  a  rule  propounded  by  educators 
never  to  punish  in  a  state  of  anger,  and  the 
rule  is  good.  But  it  is  insufficient,  in  so  far 
as  the  child  ought  to  feel  the  anger  of  his 
parents  as  the  result  of  his  own  deeds  more 
than  the  punishment  itself.  It  may  be  ad- 
visable even  to  simulate  anger  so  as  to  im- 
press the  child's  mind  with  the  danger  of 
losing  his  parents'  affection.  The  child 
ought  to  learn  what  deeds  are  productive 
of  wrath,  and  this  should  be  made  a  means 
(one  of  the  means  only)  of  learning  to 
avoid  them.  Otherwise,  if  parents  would 
not  resent  mischievous  acts,  when  the  child 
later  on  becomes  acquainted  with  other  peo- 
ple, he  would  be  very  much  disappointed  in 
the  world,  for  no  one  else  would  exhibit  the 
same  patience. 

The  proper  pimishment  would  be  to  let  a 
child  feel  the  full  result  of  wrong  and  un- 
wise deeds.  If  once  in  a  while  you  allow  a 
child  to  eat  his  fill  of  sweets  and  become  sick, 
and  remind  him  when  sick  that  his  sickness 


DO  NOT  PUNISH.  75 

is  of  his  own  doing,  you  apply  a  natural 
punishment,  which  without  making  him  ob- 
stinate will  cure  him  of  a  bad  habit. 

It  is  sometimes  a  risk  to  give  too  much 
liberty  to  children,  but  it  is  better  to  take 
the  risk  and  watch  the  results  than  to  make 
them  fear  the  rod  which  can  only  produce  a 
sneaking  and  hypocritical  character. 

When  our  children  have  grown  up  we  can 
punish  them  no  longer  and  must  then,  at 
any  rate,  leave  them  to  themselves.  If  they 
have  not  become  inured  to  the  bracing  air 
of  liberty  while  young,  they  will  never  ac- 
quire the  independence  needed  at  an  adult 
age. 

To  educate  children  simply  by  punishment 
is  not  the  right  way  of  securing  manly  in- 
dependence. There  ought  to  be  as  much  lib- 
erty as  possible,  for  by  liberty  alone  the 
sentiment  of  responsibility  can  be  insured. 


DIRECT  AND  DIVERT,  BUT  DO 
NOT  SUPPRESS 

Man  is  by  nature  a  creature  that  yearns 
for  activity.  All  his  nerves  and  muscles  are 
storehouses  freighted  with  energy  which  are 
eager  to  perform  work.  The  main  duty  of 
education  consists  in  directing  the  work,  but 
not  in  suppressing  it.  Every  function  per- 
formed establishes  a  case  of  precedence,  and 
however  easy,  as  a  rule,  it  may  be  to  dig  the 
first  channel  for  the  rivers  of  the  soul,  it 
is  very  difficult  to  change  them  as  soon  as 
they  are  firmly  established  in  habits. 

Children  that  are  taught  to  busy  them- 
selves will  be  more  manageable  when  they 
grow  older,  than  children  who  in  their  ear- 
lier years  are  left  to  themselves.  The  age 
of  early  babyhood  so  much  neglected  now, 
is  in  fact  the  most  important  period  of  a 
man's  whole  life,  and  this  is  not  less  true 
because  the  evil  consequences  that  result 

76 


DIRECT  AND  DIVERT.  77 

from  mistakes  made  at  the  beginning  of  life, 
are  the  most  difficult  to  trace. 

The  child  has  a  right  to  be  active,  and  par- 
ents and  nurses  should  see  to  it  that  when 
the  little  one  is  in  good  health  he  should  al- 
ways be  busy. 

Now  it  sometimes  happens  that  a  child 
does  something  that  it  should  not  do,  that 
it  touches  things  which  it  might  break,  that 
it  begins  to  busy  itself  with  things  which 
it  would  better  leave  alone.  In  such  cases 
it  is  not  advisable  to  interfere  violently  by 
tearing  away  the  thing  which  it  should  not 
handle.  Educators  will  find  it  easy  to  divert 
the  child's  attention  by  giving  it  some  other 
toy  which  for  the  sake  of  newness,  or  for 
some  other  reason,  it  will  at  once  prefer. 

The  policy  for  all  cases  ought  to  be  to 
divert  the  attention  of  a  child  instead  of  rob- 
bing it  by  violence  of  any  object  which  it 
may  happen  to  take  hold  of. 

When  things  are  taken  away  from  the 
child,  the  child  vdll  naturally  cry,  and  no 
one  can  blame  the  little  fellow  for  it,  but 
if  his  attention  be  diverted  he  will  drop  the 


78  OUR  CHILDREN. 

forbidden  thing  voluntarily  and  there  will 
be  no  crying  and  no  naughtiness. 

Therefore,  nurses  should  make  it  a  rule 
never  to  snatch  away  anything  from  a  child 
before  substituting  for  it  some  other  toy 
which  would  appear  at  the  moment  prefer- 
able to  the  child's  mind. 

The  same  is  true  of  bad  as  well  as  dan- 
gerous habits  to  which  a  child  should  be  dis- 
accustomed. Children  generally  love  pen- 
cils and  will  put  them  into  their  mouths. 
Of  course  they  may  fall  and  knock  the  point 
of  the  pencil  right  into  their  throat.  If 
children  are  forbidden  to  put  pencils  into 
their  mouths,  they  will  be  all  the  more 
anxious  to  do  so  and  may  develop  a  habit 
of  doing  it  when  unobserved,  whereby  an  ac- 
cident is  almost  sure  to  happen.  But  if  you 
teach  the  child  to  take  the  pencil  lengthwise 
in  the  mouth,  he  will  more  readily  discon- 
tinue putting  in  the  point  foremost  and  you 
will  forestall  in  this  way  the  formation  of 
a  dangerous  habit. 

What  is  true  of  children  is  true  generally. 
Any  one  who  has  to  deal  with  obstinate  peo- 


DIRECT  AND  DIVERT.  tO 

pie,  especially  the  warden  of  an  asylum  for 
the  insane,  will  be  wise  never  to  antagonize 
passionate  outbursts  unless  compelled  to  do 
so  by  the  direst  necessity.  Diversion  is 
easier  and  more  effective  than  suppression. 
There  is  a  story  about  a  warden  of  an  in- 
sane asylum  who  visited  the  institution 
of  a  colleague.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
grounds  by  the  janitor  who  knew  him 
personally,  and  while  walking  in  the  park, 
met  a  gentleman  who  introduced  himself  as 
a  doctor  and  inspector  of  the  wards.  The 
two  gentlemen  shook  hands  as  colleagues 
and  enjoyed  a  pleasant  walk  and  talk  and  at 
last  the  visitor  was  shown  up  to  a  wooden 
tower  which  commanded  a  general  view  of 
the  park  and  its  vicinity.  When  the  two 
reached  the  top,  the  inspector  at  once  pro- 
posed to  his  guest  to  jump  down,  as  that 
was  his  fashion  with  all  the  people  whom 
he  showed  round  through  the  institution. 
Now  at  once  the  visitor,  to  his  dismay,  be- 
comes aware  of  the  fact  that  he  is  face  to 
face  with  one  of  the  patients,  who  by  some 
mishap  must  have  escaped  from  his  keeper, 


80  OUR  CHILDREN. 

and  as  insane  people  frequently  do,  had  up 
to  that  time  behaved  in  a  quite  sensible  way. 
But  now  the  pretended  inspector  began  to 
show  all  the  symptoms  of  an  approaching  at- 
tack, and  the  visitor  looked  romid  for  a 
means  of  defending  himself  in  case  of  ag- 
gression. Had  they  come  to  a  fight  on  the 
narrow  platform  of  the  tower,  they  would 
both  have  fallen  a  considerable  depth.  The 
visitor,  being  accustomed  to  insane  persons, 
remained  calm  and  said  quietly  to  his  com- 
panion: ''You  want  me  to  jump  down  from 
this  tower  ?  That  is  nothing,  every  one  can 
do  that ;  but  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  jump 
up  from  below.  I  '11  show  you  how  to  do  it, 
come  down.''  The  patient  was  startled,  and 
asked,  ''Can  you  do  that  reaUy?"  "Of 
course  I  can,"  was  the  reply,  "come  down 
and  111  show  you.''  Thus  the  expert  alien- 
ist diverted  the  wild  imagination  of  the  pa- 
tient and  led  him  do^vn  to  a  place  in  which 
he  was  no  longer  in  danger.  They  had 
scarcely  reached  the  ground  when  the  keeper 
arrived  and  took  charge  of  the  fugitive. 
The  lesson  is  obvious  and  the  policy  of  the 


DIRECT  AND  DIVERT.  81 

clever  warden  can  be  profitably  imitated  in 
practical  life  whether  in  dealing  with  iras- 
cible adults,  with  mobs,  or  with  children. 

Children  should  be  forced  to  a  thing  as 
little  as  possible ;  the  will  should  be  directed 
and  guided,  not  broken.  We  insist  that  a 
broken  will  is  a  weak  will,  and  a  weak  will 
more  than  a  strong  will  is  given  to  obstinacy 
— the  disease  to  be  cured  by  breaking  the 
will.  We  speak  of  obstinate  people  as  head- 
strong, while  in  fact  they  are  weaklings  in 
intellect,  and  educators  who  deem  it  neces- 
sary to  break  the  wills  of  their  charges  will 
unfailingly  produce  the  result  which  they 
propose  to  avoid. 


SANITAEY  ATTENTION  TO 
CHILDREN 

Care  for  the  bodily  health  of  a  child  is  of 
paramount  importance ;  but  it  deserves  a  de- 
tailed treatment  and  does  not  lie  within  the 
pale  of  the  present  investigation.  However 
without  pretending  to  do  justice  to  the  sub- 
ject, the  author  believes  that  he  can  suggest 
some  advice  which  he  has  learned  by  ex- 
perience in  his  own  home. 

It  is  a  matter  of  course  and  needs  scarcely 
any  mention,  that  mothers  and  nurses  should 
always  think  of  their  children,  that  they 
should  attend  to  their  physical  wants  at  reg- 
ular hours  and  whenever  special  occasions 
may  demand  it — on  retiring  in  the  even- 
ing, immediately  at  their  awakening  in  the 
morning,  when  they  are  restless  at  night, 
before  and  after  walks.  They  should  not 
allow  the  little  folk  to  become  over  hungry 
nor  over  thirsty,  and  must  patiently  con- 

82 


SANITARY  ATTENTION.  88 

tinue  to  remind  them  of  attending  to  their 
various  necessities  until  definite  habits  have 
been  established.  If  something  is  wrong  in 
the  child's  deportment,  parents  should  be 
inclined,  first  of  all,  to  blame  themselves  for 
lack  of  attention. 

As  soon  as  children  begin  to  eat  flesh  diet, 
they  should  become  accustomed  to  cleaning 
their  teeth,  and  this  must  be  done  in  the 
evening,  not  in  the  morning.  It  is  during 
the  night  that  the  teeth  are  affected  by  the 
impurities  of  the  remnants  of  food  which 
form  a  thin  layer  on  the  teeth  just  as  a 
fatty  coat  will  cover  a  plate  after  use  at 
table. 

In  olden  times  when  man's  diet  was 
simple,  no  tooth  brushes  were  needed;  for 
the  best  method  of  keeping  the  teeth  clean, 
more  thorough  and  gentle  than  a  toothbrush, 
is  eating  unbuttered  bread  of  moderate  dry- 
ness. It  is  more  serviceable  than  the  bris- 
tles of  the  brush. 

If  the  teeth  have  been  cleaned  in  the  even- 
ing, more  than  rinsing  with  pure  water  will 
not  be  required  in  the  morning.    To  brush 


84  OUR  CHILDREN. 

the  teeth  once  a  day  may  ordinarily  be  suffi- 
cient, since  bristles,  especially  if  too  harsh, 
are  liable  to  cut  or  wear  away  the  enamel 
of  the  teeth,  which  is  the  best  protection  of 
the  bony  substance,  and  the  slightest  crack 
opens  the  door  to  the  inroads  of  decay. 

Children  that  grow  up  under  the  condi- 
tions of  our  overcivilization  are  apt  to  suf- 
fer from  bad  teeth  at  a  very  early  age,  and 
it  is  wise  to  let  a  considerate  dentist  fill  the 
cavities.  In  order  to  render  this  feasible, 
make  it  a  rule  never  to  speak  of  the  pains 
that  you  yourself  have  suffered  in  a  den- 
tist's chair,  although  you  may  mention  the 
fact  that  it  sometimes  hurts  incidentally, 
and  add  that  no  wise  man  cares  for  that, 
because  a  little  pain  saves  from  worse  suf- 
ferings. Should  you  happen  to  go  to  the 
dentist,  inform  your  children  of  the  fact  as 
if  you  were  telling  them  a  story  that  may 
interest  them,  and  as  soon  as  it  is  necessary 
for  them  to  have  their  teeth  attended  to, 
you  will  find  them  more  willing  to  do  so, 
and  they  will  mount  the  dentist's  chair  with 
a  good  deal  of  satisfaction.    They  will  even 


SANITARY  ATTENTION.  86 

ask  (as  I  know  by  experience)  to  be  taken 
to  the  dentist,  as  a  favor,  for  children  love 
to  imitate  the  doings  of  older  folks,  and  I 
went  so  far  as  to  threaten  one  of  my  little 
boys  that  I  would  not  take  him  to  the  den- 
tist if  he  were  not  very  good.  I  did  it,  of 
course,  and  I  did  it  as  a  special  favor  by 
way  of  recompense  and  in  recognition  of 
his  creditable  behavior.  The  dentist  treat- 
ed him  as  tenderly  as  possible,  only  once 
causing  him  pain,  and  then  probably  not 
much.  The  little  fellow  sat  in  the  chair  as 
proud  as  a  man  who  is  attending  to  an  im- 
portant business,  and  he  will  go  again  if 
any  one  of  his  teeth  should  need  treatment. 
Children  are  apt  to  have  dirty  hands,  for 
they  creep  on  the  floor,  poke  in  all  corners, 
handle  almost  everything  without  hesita- 
tion, and  gather  the  dust  and  the  dirt  that 
can  be  found  anywhere.  It  is  impossible  to 
prevent  it,  and  therefore  it  is  necessary  to 
teach  them  to  wash  their  hands  whenever 
they  eat,  not  for  general  cleanliness  only 
but  for  sanitary  reasons,  which  latter  the 
child  will  appreciate  more  readily. 


86  OUR  CHILDREN. 

Further,  children  must  learn  not  to  stick 
their  dirty  fingers  into  their  eyes,  noses, 
mouths,  and  wherever  the  mucous  mem- 
branes are  accessible.  The  mucous  mem- 
branes are  not  so  well  protected  as  the  other 
skin  of  the  body,  and  the  most  terrible  in- 
fections can  thus  be  introduced  into  the  sys- 
tem, causing  painful  diseases,  loss  of  eye- 
sight, and  other  misfortunes.  It  is  very 
important  to  beware  of  public  water  closets 
and  to  let  children  know  that  there  are 
dangers  of  infection. 

Before  the  children  go  to  bed  their  hands 
must  be  washed.  If  they  have  clean  fin- 
gers, they  can  rub  their  eyes  in  the  morning 
without  danger. 

Speaking  of  the  eyes,  I  may  incidentally 
mention  that  at  birth  they  should  be  care- 
fully cleaned  with  a  soft  rag  soaked  in  warm 
water  that  has  been  mildly  disinfected. 
Perhaps  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  all  the 
blindness  on  earth  is  due  to  a  neglect  of  this 
important  measure. 

In  the  days  of  health,  think  of  sickness, 
and  the  most  insidious  cases  are  diseases  of 


SANITARY  ATTENTION.  87 

the  throat.  It  is  therefore  specially  impor- 
tant to  prepare  children  for  the  occasion  so 
as  to  render  a  constant  supervision  possible. 
Take  them  to  the  window  when  they  are 
well  and  make  them  put  out  their  tongue 
and  say  Ah !  so  as  to  show  their  larynx.  Do 
it  in  a  joke  or  play  doctor,  and  tell  them  you 
will  see  whether  their  little  throats  are  in 
good  condition.  If  you  understand  at  all 
how  to  deal  with  children,  you  will  easily 
succeed,  and  if  one  child  sets  the  example, 
the  others  will  follow  suit  without  giving 
any  trouble.  Children  so  trained  will  at 
once  open  their  mouths  and  allow  you  to  ex- 
amine their  throats,  which  should  be  done 
at  once  whenever  there  is  the  slightest  sus- 
picion of  any  kind  of  throat  disease,  above 
all  the  most  terrible  of  them,  diphtheria. 

It  is  a  common  experience  of  physicians 
that  children  do  not  allow  their  throats  to 
be  examined  when  sick  and  no  coaxing  will 
prevail  upon  them  to  change  their  mind. 
The  little  patient's  mouth  has  sometimes  to 
be  forced  open,  which  is  very  hard  on  a 
child,  but  it  must  be  done  when  its  life  is 


88  OUR  CHILDREN. 

at  stake.  Yet  there  are  cases  when  chil- 
dren die  through  being  untractable. 

The  dangers  of  throat  diseases  are  suffi- 
ciently great  to  justify  the  prescribed  meth- 
od of  preparing  children  for  such  an  occa- 
sion. 

As  a  rule  throat  diseases  begin  with  colds; 
and  where  the  membranes  are  affected,  in- 
fectious germs  find  an  easy  entrance.  Stop 
therefore  the  malady  in  the  very  beginning 
and  let  the  children  use  the  spray  of  some 
mild  disinfectant,  for  which  purpose  there 
are  probably  no  better  drugs  than  liquid 
vaseline  or  listerine.  The  latter  should  be 
weak  enough  not  to  be  too  stringent  for  a 
child. 

When  children  have  a  sore  throat,  you 
may  be  sure  that  they  will  refuse  to  take  the 
spray  and  you  must  therefore  train  them 
for  taking  it  readily  when  needed.  You 
can  do  that  simply  by  using  sometimes  the 
spray  in  the  presence  of  your  children,  your- 
self, and  it  is  as  harmless  to  a  healthy 
throat  as  it  is  salutary  for  a  sore  one. 
Wait  till  the  children  ask  you.  What  are 


SANITARY  ATTENTION.  89 

you  doing,  papa"?  If  they  should  not  ask 
you,  announce  to  them  that  you  are  going 
to  take  a  spray  to-night,  and  they  are  sure 
to  be  anxious  why  you  do  it.  Then  is  the 
time  to  explain  to  them  that  you  feel  a  little 
sore  in  your  throat  and  the  spray  will  do 
you  good.  They  will  soon  ask  you  to  en- 
joy the  spray  themselves.  Be  careful  not 
to  give  them  too  much ;  that  would  frighten 
them  and  make  the  experiment  futile.  Just 
let  them  enjoy  it  so  long  as  it  is  mere  exer- 
cise until  they  get  accustomed  to  ^'the 
throat-machine. ' ' 

Should  a  spray  be  needed  by  children  be- 
fore you  have  accustomed  them  to  it,  you 
might  carefully  apply  it  in  their  sleep, 
watching  the  breathing  and  pressing  the 
India  rubber  ball  at  a  few  successive  in- 
halations. But  this  is  a  mere  makeshift 
and  will  not  be  so  effective  as  when  the  child 
voluntarily  gives  his  consent  to  the  perfor- 
mance. 

One  word  more  about  the  treatment  of 
the  stomach  of  children.  Here,  as  in  many 
other  cases,  the  best  method  is  the  golden 


00  OUR  CHILDREN. 

way  of  leaving  the  children  at  liberty  to  eat 
what  they  please.  The  two  extremes  which 
trespass  against  this  rule,  viz.,  compelling 
children  to  eat  and  coaxing  them,  are  equal- 
ly obnoxious.  If  children  should  eat  a  cer- 
tain kind  of  food,  set  them  the  example 
yourself  and  they  will  imitate  you.  If  you 
force  them  to  eat  something  that  is  good  for 
them,  the  food  becomes  disgusting  to  the 
child  and  thereby  loses  some  of  those  quali- 
ties on  account  of  which  it  seems  recom- 
mendable.  Only  in  cases  of  extreme  danger 
when  a  sick  child  objects  to  the  food  while 
on  the  point  of  starvation  is  there  any  justi- 
fication in  employing  force. 

By  far  the  more  common  mistake  is  coax- 
ing, the  results  of  which  are  very  injurious. 
When  you  find  a  child  that  has  no  appetite 
and  would  never  eat  heartily,  but  merely 
nibble  at  this  and  that  tidbit,  and  even  then 
only  on  repeated  serious  entreaties  of  his 
mamma,  you  may  be  assured  that  the  little 
fellow  is  one  of  the  many  victims  of  coax- 
ing. The  anxious  mamma  will  tell  you  that 
the  child  is  as  thin  as  a  ghost,  you  can 


SANITARY  ATTENTION.  91 

count  his  ribs,  and  if  you  do  not  coax  him 
he  will  starve.  The  truth  is,  his  food  has 
become  disgusting  to  him  by  coaxing.  He 
is  overfed,  not  underfed. 

What  is  to  be  done  under  this  trying  and 
exceptional  condition? 

The  best  appetizer  is  hunger.  Try  the 
starvation  cure.  Do  not  make  any  fuss 
with  a  boy  of  that  kind,  but  tell  him,  '*  Very 
well !  If  you  do  not  want  to  eat  you  need  not. 
I  will  not  force  you.  You  are  at  perfect 
liberty  to  do  as  you  please."  Take  him  out 
for  a  walk ;  either  do  it  yourself,  if  you  are 
his  father  or  mother,  or  let  the  nurse  do  it, 
or  an  uncle,  or  a  friend,  and  when  you  re- 
turn, tell  him  that  you  have  grown  hungry 
and  have  a  good  appetite  for  a  piece  of 
bread  or  a  roll  and  milk,  for  milk  rice,  for 
soup,  or  whatever  may  be  on  hand.  Sit 
down  and  eat,  and  invite  him  to  join  you 
without,  however,  coaxing  him.  The  prob- 
ability is  that  the  child  will  show  a  better 
appetite  after  the  first  doses  of  the  starva- 
tion cure  and  he  will  ever  after  like  the 
food  which  once  satisfied  his  hunger;  for 


08  OUR  CHILDREN. 

the  stomach  too  has  a  memory,  and  appetite 
for  a  special  dish  means  the  stomach's  recol- 
lection that  it  has  given  it  satisfaction  on  a 
similar  occasion. 

Never  give  children  sweets  when  they  are 
hungry,  but  always  substantial  solid  food, 
and  set  them  whenever  possible  the  exam- 
ple yourself  by  partaking  of  the  same  dish. 

Make  it  a  rule  not  to  show  them  sweets 
when  they  should  not  have  them;  it  un- 
necessarily leads  them  into  temptation ;  and 
too  many  sweets  will  spoil  the  stomach. 
Nor  are  sweets  indispensable  in  life.  Even 
Christmas  can  be  celebrated  without  them. 

Festive  seasons  are  dangerous  solely  on 
account  of  sweets,  and  if  statistics  show  an 
increase  of  children's  diseases  or  even  mor- 
tality after  Christmas,  it  is  to  be  attributed 
to  the  exaggerated  consumption  of  sweets. 

But  because  sweets  are  dangerous,  you 
should  not  forbid  your  children  to  eat  them ; 
on  the  contrary,  whenever  they  come  within 
the  reach  of  the  little  ones,  let  them  have  of 
them  as  much  as  they  demand  and  as  the 
stock  which  you  expose  to  sight  will  allow. 


SANITARY  ATTENTION.  93 

It  is  better  cMldren  have  once  or  twice  a 
spoiled  stomach  than  that  they  hanker  after 
forbidden  fruit.  Let  them  acquire  them- 
selves the  strength  of  refusing  what  is  not 
good  for  them.  Do  not  act  the  part  of  the 
police  or  of  a  paternal  government,  that 
forces  on  the  people  what  in  the  opinion  of 
the  authorities,  is  good  for  them.  Let  the 
children  have  all  they  want,  even  though  it 
be  all  there  is  in  sight,  and  tell  them  they 
will  have  to  bear  the  consequences. 

There  may  be  exceptional  conditions  when 
the  rule  of  liberty  must  be  suspended,  as  it 
may  sometimes  be  necessary  to  declare  mar- 
tial law,  but  under  ordinary  circumstances 
let  the  rule  remain  in  force,  that  children 
must  be  reared  in  liberty. 

The  method  of  rearing  children  in  liberty 
must  not  lead  to  unrestrained  license,  but 
to  self-control,  and  educators  must  never 
lose  sight  of  their  ultimate  aim. 


THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  NAMING 
THINGS  IN  THE  NURSERY. 

The  aim  of  all  education  is  to  enable  the 
child  when  it  attains  to  manhood  to  exercise 
dominion  over  the  world  of  realities,  and 
this  is  done  by  establishing  in  our  children's 
minds  clear  representations  of  things  and 
happenings. 

In  the  book  of  Genesis  we  read  that  God 
gave  man  dominion  over  all  the  animals  and 
things  of  creation  (i.  26) ;  and  he  brought 
them  unto  Adam  to  see  how  he  would  call 
them  (ii.  19).  The  connection  between 
man's  language  and  his  superiority  over  all 
other  creatures  is  not  fortuitous,  for  by 
naming  things  man  gains  dominion  over 
them.  In  language  man  mirrors  the  world 
and  classifies  its  phenomena.  Through 
language  alone  can  he  acquire  exact  knowl- 
edge and  learn  to  foredetermine  the  course 
of  events. 

94 


NAMING  THINGS.  95 

I  had  occasion  to  observe  the  truth  of  this 
broad  statement  when  showing  to  an  infant 
boy  the  movements  of  the  machinery  in  a 
factory.  The  child  was  at  first  frightened 
by  the  noise  and  naturally  did  not  take  kind- 
ly to  the  formidable  din  of  the  rolling-mill. 
But  it  is  easy  enough  to  accustom  even  a 
baby  to  any  monotonous  noise  by  imitating 
its  sound.  The  rollers  produce  two  peculiar 
clangs, — one  sharp,  the  other  muffled. 
When  the  little  fellow  was  frightened  we  re- 
treated from  the  rolling-mill,  but  I  con- 
tinued to  remind  him  of  the  noise  by  telling 
him  of  the  clang  and  the  thump  that  were 
heard  in  rapid  succession.  He  seemed  to 
regain  his  self-possession,  and  the  banging 
of  the  mill  ceased  to  be  formidable,  for  he 
grew  rather  curious  and  turned  his  head  to 
look.  Then  he  was  slowly  carried  back  to 
the  rolling-mill,  where  he  began  to  anticipate 
the  noise  as  accompanied  by  the  words  clang, 
thump.  The  constant  repetition  of  these 
words  imitating  the  noise,  kept  the  child  pre- 
pared for  what  was  coming,  and  he  now  soon 
became  accustomed  to  the  sight  of  the  roll- 


96  OUR  CHILDREN. 

ers  which  he  began  to  contemplate,  not 
without  awe  yet  without  terror. 

I  had  occasion  to  make  similar  observa- 
tions at  the  dump  of  a  coal  shaft.  As  soon 
as  a  child  is  prepared  for  the  deafening 
noise  of  the  falling  coal  by  some  adequate 
imitation  of  the  sound,  something  like  hoom 
doom  hoom,  he  will  instead  of  fear  show  a 
desire  to  watch  the  process  from  a  place  of 
safety. 

In  performing  such  experiments  care 
should  be  taken  that  he  who  carries  the  baby 
should  never  approach  either  nearer  or  more 
quickly  than  the  child  desires  to  go,  and  chil- 
dren are  never  at  a  loss  to  indicate  their 
wishes  unequivocally. 

The  naming  of  any  happening  is  the  first 
step  towards  mastering  it.  The  image  of 
the  process,  instead  of  being  a  bewildering 
sense-impression,  becomes  a  mental  act  and 
is  now  clearly  subsumed  under,  and  repre- 
sented by,  a  sound  sjrmbol.  Thus,  to  the 
memory  of  the  event  itself  a  new  and  higher 
soul-structure,  a  name  representing  the 
event,  is  added  which  becomes  connected 


NAMING  THINGS.  97 

with,  and  will  always  at  once  awaken,  a  rec- 
ollection of  the  original  sense-impression. 
The  recollection  is  comparatively  faint,  and 
being  not  as  overwhelming  as  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  reality  itself  will  allow  a 
calm  contemplation  of  the  process.  With 
such  preparation  a  repeated  approach  will 
not  disturb  the  child's  self-possession.  He 
will  now  begin  to  observe,  and  the  former 
feeling  of  fear  will  yield  to  an  eagerness  to 
witness  the  scene. 

There  are  in  the  bustle  of  a  factory  so 
many  details  which  should  be  clearly  ap- 
prehended, that  it  will  be  a  great  help  to  the 
growing  intellect  of  the  child  if  here  again 
the  most  striking  of  them  are  named. 
While  the  coal  car  is  being  pushed  to  the 
verge  of  the  dump,  the  process  may  be  ac- 
companied by  some  such  words  as  rolly- 
roUy-rolly.  The  turning  of  wheels  may  be 
accompanied  by  rotatory  movements  of  the 
baby's  arm,  and  you  can  almost  see  how 
thereby  the  child  is  enabled  the  better  to 
watch  the  rolling.  In  an  analogous  way  the 
movement  of  hammers,  the  backward  and 


08  OUR  CHILDREN. 

forward  motions  of  pistons,  the  rotation  of 
cranks,  etc.,  etc.,  can  be  imitated,  which  will 
help  the  child  to  grasp  quickly  and  clearly 
the  elementary  features  of  sense-impres- 
sions. 

The  fires  are  best  imitated  by  sounding 
the  aspirate,  h^h^h^h\  bells  by  ding-dong, 
the  puffing  of  engines  by  tch*-tch\  animals  in 
the  traditional  way,  how-wow,  moo-moo,  etc. 

Adopting  this  method  of  naming  events 
in  baby  language,  I  succeeded  in  teaching 
a  very  small  child  the  mystery  of  the  re- 
versing lever  with  its  accompanying  ma- 
chinery. When  the  reverse  turned  the  drum 
of  the  coal-shaft-elevator  in  one  direction, 
say  to  the  right,  I  called  the  oscillations  of 
the  reversing  gear  vick  vack,  vick  vack,  and 
when  the  lever  was  reversed  and  the  driun 
turned  in  the  opposite  direction  I  called  it 
vack  vick,  vack  vick.  The  reversion  of  the 
name  suggests  the  reversion  of  the  move- 
ment and  helps  to  fix  in  a  child's  mind  the 
sense-impression  in  its  essential  features. 
A  little  steam-engine  model  was  an  ad- 
ditional help,  giving  an  inside  view  of  the 


NAMING  THINGS.  99 

piston  and  side  valves  in  their  connection 
with  the  reverse  lever. 

The  child  must  have  the  most  essential 
features  of  processes  and  events  delineated 
in  his  mind  in  strong  outlines  and  it  will 
then  be  easy  to  add  the  more  complicated 
details  without  causing  mystification  or  con- 
fusion. 

That  the  chicken-yard,  farms,  sheep-folds, 
and  other  places  where  living  animals  can 
be  observed  should  be  visited,  that  birds, 
dogs,  horses,  should  be  watched  and  their 
behavior  noted,  goes  without  saying,  and 
everywhere  the  same  method  should  be  ap- 
plied to  render  the  sense-impressions  more 
distinct  by  gestures  as  well  as  names. 

If  in  the  imagination  of  the  child  sense- 
pictures  are  thus  connected  with  definite 
sounds,  it  will  be  easy  to  revive  the  memories 
of  former  experiences;  and  one  is  enabled 
to  tell  to  babies  when  they  are  restless  either 
in  the  evening  or  at  night,  stories  which 
draw  upon  their  little  stock  of  memories, 
and  it  will  quickly  quiet  them  because  they 
are  gi'eatly  interested  in  hearing  the  tales 


100  OUR  CHILDREN. 

of  their  own  experiences  which  will  be  the 
more  interesting  to  them  the  greater  the  ter- 
rors that  had  originally  to  be  overcome. 

The  application  of  baby  language  is  of 
manifold  use  especially  at  night,  when  for 
some  reason  a  child  is  restless  and  the  usual 
methods  fail  to  quiet  his  imagination. 

The  usual  lullaby  songs  are  upon  the 
whole  very  good ;  longdrawn  notes,  words  of 
soothing  sound,  with  prevailing  o  and  espe- 
cially u  tones  are  most  soporific;  but  it  is 
sometimes  difficult  to  put  babies  to  sleep, 
and  then  you  may  in  a  hushed  voice  which 
will  raise  expectancy  sing  a  story  consisting 
simply  of  the  repetition  of  familiar  sounds. 
The  child  will  listen  to  the  song,  nonsensical 
though  it  may  appear  to  outsiders  and  to  all 
people  not  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of 
baby  language.  It  will  quiet  down,  and  give 
the  nurse  a  chance  gradually  to  change  her 
song  to  more  monotonous  lullaby  tunes,  such 
as  ''the  rolliug-mill  goes  clang-thump!"  or 
"the  choo-choo  says  ding-dong,"  or  '*the  lit- 
tle lamb  says  haa,  haa,"  etc.  The  baby  will 
listen  with  as  much  interest  as  older  children 


NAMING  THINGS.  101 

manifest  when  a  fairy  tale  is  told,  and  the 
interesting  images  will  by  and  by  be  trans- 
formed into  dream  visions. 

It  is  easy  enough  for  a  nurse  to  watch  and 
to  influence  the  growing  intellect  of  an  in- 
fant, and  every  nurse  ought  to  be  able  to  ac- 
count for  and  understand  her  charge's  vo- 
cabulary of  those  sense-impressions  which 
in  the  beginning  of  life  play  a  prominent 

part. 

*        *        * 

Special  attention  should  be  paid  to  such 
events  and  natural  phenomena  as  are  apt  to 
frighten  children.  When  thunderstorms 
come  up,  the  father  or  mother  should  take 
the  baby  without  any  excitement.  Show  it 
the  lightning  with  signs  of  an  appreciation 
of  its  beauty  and  prepare  the  baby's  ear  for 
the  rumbling  thunder.  The  least  evidence 
of  fear  on  the  part  of  the  parents  will  affect 
the  child  and  may  make  him  a  coward  for 
life.  Of  course,  you  must  avoid  coming 
near  the  iron  pipes  and  electric  wires,  and 
must  remain  in  such  places  as  are  compara- 
tively safe.    Moving  about  is  upon  the  whole 


108  OUR  CHILDREN. 

better  than  staying  in  one  place,  because  it 
diverts  the  child's  attention  from  the 
formidable  impression.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  troops  under  fire  who  remain  in- 
active break  down  and  lose  courage  sooner 
than  troops  who  are  advancing  or  are  other- 
wise kept  busy. 

These  hints,  if  observed,  help  to  establish 
in  the  child  a  self-possession  which  in  later 
years  will  be  so  much  needed. 

Which  impressions  should  be  the  fii'st 
stratum  of  the  child's  soul,  depends  of  course 
on  surroundings  and  other  conditions. 
However,  we  must  expect  that  the  compre- 
hension of  facts  will  be  followed  by  a  de- 
termination to  handle  the  realities  which 
have  been  watched  in  early  childhood. 
Therefore  when  machinery  is  shown,  the 
child  should  at  once  learn  with  what  care 
and  precautions  it  must  be  handled. 


COUNTING 

A  little  boy  of  about  five  years  was  in  the 
habit  of  counting  1,  2,  3,  5,  7,  and  he  stuck 
to  this  habit.  He  was  told  that  he  omitted 
4  and  6,  and  he  probably  understood  the  cor- 
rection, but  whenever  he  began  to  count  he 
fell  back  for  a  long  time  into  his  old  habit 
of  counting  the  numbers  wrongly.  The 
reason  was  that  by  accident  he  had  learned 
the  numbers  in  the  wrong  way  and  it  stuck 
to  him. 

Another  little  child  always  called  a  sea- 
gull in  his  picture-book  a  swallow,  for  he 
had  been  told  so  by  his  nurse,  and  got  ir- 
ritated when  contradicted,  insisting  even  to 
tears  again  and  again  on  its  being  a  swallow. 
By  and  by,  however,  he  relented,  but  even 
then  he  continued  to  say,  **This  is  not  a 
swallow,  but  a  seagull,*'  and  only  in  time  did 
he  drop  the  negative  expression  and  knew 
and  declared  without  any  irritation  that  it 

103 


104  OUR  CHILDREN. 

was  a  seagull.  Such  trouble  originates  by  a 
little  mistake,  and  shall  we  not  be  careful 
in  laying  the  foundation  of  a  human  soul  ? 

As  to  counting,  I  would  say  the  easiest 
way  to  teach  it  is  to  count  the  steps  by  walk- 
ing up  or  down  stairs.  If  this  be  done  pa- 
tiently again  and  again,  the  child  begins  to 
listen  to  the  numbers  and  will  very  soon  be- 
gin to  accompany  each  step  with  its  proper 
number.  The  first  mistake  should  be 
avoided,  and  my  experience  is  that  children 
will,  without  the  slightest  trouble,  learn  to 
count  first  to  12,  then  to  20.  When  they 
have  learned  to  count  to  20,  they  are  pre- 
pared to  count  to  any  number  up  to  100  or 
more.  The  third  step  is  an  intellectual  step, 
by  learning  to  imderstand  the  function  of 
the  decades  30,  40,  50,  etc.,  which  are,  how- 
ever, clearly  grasped  as  running  parallel 
with  3,  4,  5,  and  so  forth. 

Before  an  attempt  can  be  made  to  count 
the  steps,  a  preliminary  exercise  might  be 
the  frequent  repetition  of  1,  2,  3,  which  can 
be  practised  on  various  occasions;  for  in- 
stance, when  turning  off  or  on  the  electric 


COUNTING.  106 

light,  or  by  playing  peekaboo,  etc.,  whereby 
the  order  of  the  three  numbers  impresses 
itself  mechanically  upon  the  memory  of  a 
child.  Then  proceed  to  counting  fingers 
and  toes,  and  only  when  the  first  five  num- 
bers can  be  repeated  without  difficulty,  pro- 
ceed with  counting  other  objects. 

One  peculiar  phase  in  learning  how  to 
count  is  marked  by  the  child's  ability  to 
stop  at  the  right  time.  Children  first 
acquire  the  mechanical  memory  of  saying  1, 
2,  3,  4,  5,  etc.  When  they  are  shown  five 
spoons  or  five  chips  or  other  things  of  any 
description  and  are  requested  to  count  them, 
they  begin  to  count  mechanically  without  be- 
ing able  to  stop  at  the  right  time.  It  indi- 
cates a  more  advanced  degree  of  mentality 
when  the  child  possesses  a  perfect  parallel- 
ism between  the  names  of  the  numbers  and 
the  things  which,  by  being  pointed  at,  are  to 
be  counted.  The  process  of  counting  has 
reached  its  maturity  when  a  child  learns  to 
stop  at  the  proper  time.  In  the  beginning 
the  tendency  will  predominate  that  when- 
ever the  child  begins  to  count,  it  will  count 


106  OUR  CHILDREN. 

the  whole  series  of  numbers  as  far  as  it 
knows  them ;  but  the  relation  between  things 
and  the  series  of  word-images  of  the  nu- 
merals is  easily  established  by  stopping  the 
child  and  summing  up  the  situation  by  say- 
ing: There  are  five  spoons,  there  are  five 
chips,  or  whatever  it  may  be. 

In  the  case  of  practising  counting,  as  in 
all  other  instances  of  memorizing,  we  must 
consider  that  a  great  number  of  mechan- 
ically impressed  memories  will  subsequently 
render  the  conscious  and  intelligent  manip- 
ulation of  the  ideas  connected  therewith 
easier.  The  subconscious  memories  which 
have  been  early  acquired,  form  a  very  valu- 
able capital  which  will  never  fail  to  be  most 
serviceable.  As  children  now  are  commonly 
educated,  they  have  either  no  such  mechan- 
ically impressed  memories  in  their  minds,- 
or  their  impressions,  be  they  numbers,  im- 
ages of  things,  or  other  conceptions,  form 
an  irregular  conglomeration  which  will 
rather  serve  to  bewilder  than  to  help  them 
when  the  years  of  school-life  begin.  A 
healthy  development  of  mind  is  possible  only 


COUNTING.  107 

when  our  subconscious  notions  are  distinct 
and  clear.  This  can  be  accomplished  by 
rendering  as  definite  as  possible  the  first 
sense-impressions,  which  precede  the  form- 
ation of  more  conscious  and  more  intel- 
lectual operations. 

Before  concluding  this  chapter  it  seems 
advisable  to  forestall  an  objection  which 
might  be  raised  to  the  proposition  that  our 
subconscious  notions  should  be  distinct  and 
clear.  The  terms  clear  and  subconscious  do 
not  exclude  one  another.  An  idea  or  a 
sense-impression  may  be  quite  distinct  and 
correct  in  its  details  without  fully  rising 
into  the  field  of  conscious  attention,  and  it 
is  one  of  the  most  important  duties  of  the 
educator  to  devote  much  care  to  the  province 
of  the  subconscious  which  in  our  intellectual 
as  well  as  our  emotional  life  is  of  greater 
significance  than  at  first  sight  it  might  ap- 
pear. 

The  first  simple  examples  of  the  multipli- 
cation table  should  be  done  with  concrete 
objects,  at  the  very  start  with  the  child's 
fingers,  then  with  the  beads  of  an  abacus 


108  OUR  CHILDREN. 

or  counters.  The  abacus  should  consist  of 
ten  rows  of  ten  beads  each,  and  if  counters 
are  used  they  should  when  counted  in  large 
numbers,  be  piled  up  in  heaps  of  ten,  so  as 
to  represent  the  decimal  system  which  to  us 
is  and  will  remain  the  basis  of  number-lore. 

Multiplication  tables  should  be  worked 
out  by  the  children  themselves,  and  they 
should  be  helped  to  find  out  for  themselves 
the  relations  of  nimibers  to  geometrical  fig- 
ures such  as  the  areas  of  quadrangles  and 
their  purely  arithmetical  proportions. 

For  one  of  my  little  boys  who  found  it 
very  hard  to  remember  the  multiplication 
table  of  9, 1  invented  an  easy  method,  which 
I  will  here  communicate  for  the  benefit  of 
other  children. 

Put  both  hands  on  the  table  and  let  every 
finger  successively  stand  for  one  number. 
When  you  are  asked  to  multiply  by  nine  you 
lift  the  finger  representing  the  multiplier 
and  read  off  the  product  from  the  remaining 
fingers.  The  number  of  fingers  on  the  left 
represents  the  tens,  and  that  on  the  right 
the  imits  of  the  product. 


MIND-EEADING  AND 
ARITHMETIC 

A  good  method  of  keeping  up  the  interest 
of  boys  and  girls  in  mathematics  is  to  ex- 
plain to  them  easy  arithmetical  tricks  which 
they  can  readily  perform  for  themselves.  A 
very  simple  card-trick,  which  appears  quite 
wonderful  to  the  uninitiated,  is  as  foUows: 

Ten  cards  from  ace  to  ten  are  laid  in  or- 
der in  a  row,  beginning  at  the  right  and 
with  their  faces  down.  The  performer  of 
the  trick  anounces  that  he  will  teU  the 
number  of  cards  which  may  be  moved  by 
one  of  the  company  from  the  right  to  the 
left  and  in  addition  pick  up  the  card  bear- 
ing this  number.  As  we  wish  to  explain 
the  trick,  we  wiU  play  with  the  faces  of 
the  cards  upwards;  and  the  original  order 
(when  uncovered)  will  be  this: 


*+*]  F~*|  W4^]  |*+*1  (*~^ 

+*+   +  +   +*♦    +  +    +  + 


*  + 

+ 


"EH 


109 


110  OUR  CHILDREN. 

The  magician  then  leaves  the  room,  and 
some  one  who  wishes  to  test  the  extraordi- 
nary accomplishment  of  his  young  friend 
transfers  a  few  cards  in  their  regular  order 
from  the  right  side  to  the  left.  Let  four 
cards  be  moved,  then  the  new  order  will  be 
this: 


+  + 

+'  + 


+   +     +   + 
+    +     +   + 


+ 
*    4 


You  will  at  once  see  that  the  four-spot 
has  become  the  first  card  of  the  row.  The 
first  card  tells  the  number  of  the  cards 
moved.  Accordingly  the  yornig  performer 
lifts  up  the  first  card,  and  seeing  that  it  is 
a  four-spot  declares,  ''Four  cards  have  been 
moved.''  The  art  of  the  magician  consists 
in  giving  the  impression  that  he  knows  the 
card  before  he  picks  it  up,  and  that  the  dis- 
covery of  the  position  of  the  four-spot  is 
only  an  additional  proof  of  his  omniscience. 
He  goes  out  again,  knowing  beforehand  that 
whatever  nmnber  of  cards  may  be  moved 
from  the  right  side  to  the  left,  the  card 
which  bears  that  number  will  always  be 


MIND-READING. 


Ill 


found  in  the  last  position  of  the  ten-spot, 
which  at  present  is  the  next  place  after  the 
four  cards  transposed  in  the  first  move ;  i.  e., 
in  the  fifth  place.  If  no  card  is  moved,  the 
ten-spot  will  remain  in  its  place  and  will  be 
picked  up  as  a  sign  that  all  ten  cards,  or 
none  at  all,  which  means  the  same  thing, 
have  been  moved.  But  suppose  that  three 
cards  have  been  moved,  then  the  three  will 
be  in  the  fifth  place : 


+^+|  [+~hF|  [*~*|  f+~+|  [+1  r+n  I     WJti*\  |+~*|  F4.+ 
+  +  *  *     +  *  ♦  t  t  J+*  +  + 

♦    4-1    *    *\  \*    *\  \*   41  I  «»    I  I   *   I    4''^4»     ■»    4"    »% 


The  place  of  the  card  showing  the  num- 
ber of  cards  moved  will  always  be  "one  plus 
the  total  number  of  moves,"  and  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  course  that  only  units  count. 

After  the  second  move  the  card  to  be 
taken  up  will  be  1  +  4  +  3  =  8,  and  sup- 
posing that  five  cards  are  now  moved  the 
five  will  appear  in  the  eighth  place.  Thus 
we  may  continue,  and  the  uninitiated  will 
wonder  what  trick  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
performance,  which  is  nothing  but  a  very 
simple  example  in  addition. 


112  OUR  CHILDREN. 

Another  trick,  wluch  may  be  called  "mind- 
reading,"  is  also  the  work  of  simple  arith- 
metic. 

Suppose  you  request  a  person  to  think  of 
any  number  from  1  to  15  and  to  point  out  to 
you  the  rows  in  which  his  number  occurs 
in  the  following  scheme : 

1  3    5    7    9  11  13  15 

2  3  6  7  10  11  14  15 
4  5  6  7  12  13  14  15 
8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15 

You  will  at  once  know  the  number  which  the 
person  has  in  mind  when  he  tells  you  in 
which  horizontal  rows  it  occurs,  for  all  you 
have  to  do  is  to  add  together  the  fii'st  num- 
bers of  these  rows.  A  close  inspection  will 
tell  you  that  3  occurs  in  the  two  lines  be- 
ginning with  1  and  2 ;  the  number  5  in  the 
lines  beginning  with  1  and  4,  etc.,  and  15  in 
all  four  lines  beginning  with  1,  2,  4  and  8. 

If  we  now  replace  the  numbers  with  pic- 
tures, the  arithmetical  clue  will  be  concealed, 
and  the  audience  will  be  thoroughly  mysti- 
fied.   In  order  to  assist  the  little  magician, 


MIND-READING.  113 

whose  memory  is  not  as  yet  well  trained,  we 
propose  to  replace  the  numbers  with  pictures 
which  will  readily  suggest  the  numbers  that 
they  represent.  This  may  be  done  by  rep- 
resenting the  four  numbers  1,  2,  4,  and  8  by 
wheels;  1  by  a  wheelbarrow,  which  has  one 
wheel ;  2  by  a  bicycle  or  a  cannon,  which  has 
two  wheels;  4  by  a  wagon,  which  has  four 
wheels ;  and  8  by  an  engine  which  has  eight 
wheels.  Another  method  of  representing 
these  four  numbers  would  be  by  feet:  1  as 
a  top  or  as  a  stork  standing  on  one  foot;  2 
as  a  man;  4  as  any  quadruped;  and  8  as  a 
spider  or  an  octopus. 

The  other  figures  may  be  represented  by 
other  objects  suggesting  the  several  num- 
bers. Clover  may  represent  3 ;  a  hand  or  a 
starfish,  5;  an  insect  having  six  feet,  6;  a 
rainbow,  7;  the  Union  Jack,  which  can  be 
made  with  9  strokes,  or  a  school-house,  will 
represent  9  (nine  o'clock  being  the  hour  for 
beginning  the  recitations)  ;  the  decalogue  of 
Moses,  10;  or  if  this  be  too  weighty  a  sub- 
ject or  too  difficult  to  draw,  take  a  tent,  the 
sound  of  whose  name  will  remind  you  of 


114 


OUR  CHILDREN. 


5^ 


^^^ 


MIND-READING. 


115 


116 


OUR  CHILDREN. 


^ 
^ 
^ 


MIND-READING. 


117 


%C'a3ss^^^ 


118  OUR  CHILDREN. 

ten ;  11  would  be  well  represented  by  a  foot- 
ball; 12  by  the  meridian  sun,  or  by  a  clock 
or  watch  whose  small  hand  points  to  twelve ; 
the  American  flag  with  its  thirteen  stripes 
will  represent  13 ;  another  representation  of 
13  would  be  Christ  with  the  twelve  Apostles, 
or  a  cross :  for  the  idea  that  13  is  an  unlucky 
number  originated  through  the  thought  of 
the  crucifixion,  Christ  having  been  the  thir- 
teenth at  the  Last  Supper ;  fourteen  may  be 
the  crown  of  Louis  XIV.,  or  his  coat-of- 
arms,  or  a  valentine,  since  St.  Valentine's 
day  falls  on  the  fourteenth  of  February,  or 
the  two  constellations,  the  Dipper  and  the 
Pleiades,  each  one  consisting  of  seven  bril- 
liant stars  visible  to  the  naked  eye;  while 
15,  finally,  may  be  represented  by  a  die  show- 
ing the  faces  4,  5,  and  6. 

All  these  things  can  be  easily  drawn  by 
children  and  should  be  so  arranged  on  four 
cards  as  to  reproduce  the  number-arrange- 
ment given  above.  Each  card  will  cor- 
respond to  a  row,  and  in  our  illustrations  the 
first  number  of  each  row  is  represented  by 
the  picture  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner. 


MIND-READING.    .  110 

It  is  not  necessary  to  preserve  the  same  or- 
der, if  our  youngster  only  remembers  the 
place  of  the  pictures  which  represent  the 
numbers  that  must  be  added.  Having 
drawn  his  four  cards,  he  presents  them  to 
some  one  with  the  request  that  he  think  of 
some  of  the  objects  and  hand  him  back  those 
cards  on  which  this  object  appears.  Each 
card  that  is  handed  back  represents  a  num- 
ber, and  their  sum  indicates  the  object 
thought  of.  Thus  if  a  person  thinks  of  the 
flag  (number  13),  he  will  hand  back  the 
cards  bearing  the  pictures  wheelbarrow, 
wagon,  and  engine,  as  being  those  on  which 
the  flag  occurs,  representing  the  numbers  1, 
4,  and  8,  the  sum  of  which  makes  13. 

The  underlying  theory  of  the  trick  is  of 
course  old  and  pretty  well  known,  but  the 
idea  of  expressing  it  in  pictures  that  repre- 
sent the  numbers  and  that  can  be  easily 
drawn  by  the  children  themselves,  is  new 
and  may  be  welcome  to  educators  and  par- 
ents. 


NATUEAL  SCIENCE 

Use  every  opportunity  in  life  to  teach 
children  the  elementary  facts  and  truths  of 
the  sciences  which  in  later  life  will  be  of 
use  to  them.  Familiarize  them  as  much  as 
possible  with  instructive  observations. 
Teach  them  through  the  eye  a  knowledge  of 
facts  that  will  serve  as  examples  of  impor- 
tant scientific  truths.  Convey  your  first  in- 
struction by  merely  showing  something,  by 
making  experiments,  etc.,  but  beware  of  su- 
peradding too  quickly  the  theories  invented 
to  explain  the  facts,  and  if  you  mention  them 
characterize  them  at  once  as  hypothetical. 
Let  the  experiment  speak  for  itself  and  re- 
mind the  child  of  similar  or  analogous  ex- 
periments and  experiences. 

Some  of  the  simplest  experiments  in 
physics  can  be  repeated  in  the  nursery.  Let 
the  children  lift  an  inverted  glass  from  the 
bottom  of  the  bathtub  above  the  surface  of 

120 


NATURAL  SCIENCE.  121 

the  water ;  let  them  dip  the  inverted  glass  to- 
gether with  the  air  into  the  water ;  or  take  a 
toothbrush  stand,  with  a  hole  in  its  lower 
edge  and  let  the  water  run  forth,  whereby 
you  can  point  out  that  the  parabola  of  the 
outflowing  streamlet  is  proportionate  to  the 
pressure  of  the  water  inside  the  vessel. 
Then  close  tightly  with  your  hand  the  top 
of  the  toothbrush  stand  filled  with  water, 
in  which  case  no  water  will  come  out,  or  per- 
haps only  a  few  drops  will  drip  down. 

Make  the  children  see  the  depth  which 
blocks  of  wood  require  to  float,  let  them  com- 
pare blocks  of  different  densities,  and  you 
will  soon  help  them  to  discover  for  them- 
selves the  law  that  the  weight  of  a  floating 
body  is  equal  to  the  weight  of  the  water 
which  it  displaces. 

Set  the  children  to  thinking  why  empty 
vessels,  although  made  of  porcelain  or  iron, 
will  float,  while  they  will  go  down  when 
filled  with  water. 

Further,  the  children  who  know  that  steel 
is  heavy  will  take  delight  in  seeing  a  needle 
float  that  has  carefully  been  placed  upon  the 


128  OUR  CHILDREN. 

surface  of  the  water.  The  experiment  will 
succeed  more  easily  if  the  needle  is  dipped 
in  butter.  The  cohesion  of  the  particles  of 
water  among  themselves  is  strong  enough 
to  carry  little  bodies  such  as  needles,  if  they 
are  smooth  enough  not  to  break  the  connec- 
tion of  the  surface  which  acts  like  a  thin 
film.  Small  pieces  of  wire  netting  (such  as 
is  used  for  window  screens),  especially  if 
lightly  coated  with  paraffin,  will  also  float, 
but  a  pin  goes  down,  for  its  head  will  tear 
the  film. 

Again,  on  some  occasion  or  other  place  a 
coin  into  a  tub,  or  perhaps  better  into  a 
dish  or  a  mug,  and  let  the  children  look  at 
it  from  a  given  place  where  the  coin  is  hid- 
den behind  the  rim.  Then  fill  the  tub  with 
water  and  the  coin  becomes  visible  on  ac- 
coimt  of  the  refraction  of  the  rays  of  light 
which  produce  the  picture.  Then  put  a 
spoon  into  the  water  and  call  their  attention 
to  the  deflection  of  the  image. 

A  piece  of  the  wire  netting  of  window- 
screens  is  also  useful  to  show  the  children 
the  inside  and  whole  make-up  of  a  flame,  by 


NATURAL  SCIENCE.  123 

repeating  all  the  simple  experiments  which 
are  made  in  a  lesson  on  physics. 

When  you  take  a  walk  with  the  children 
after  a  rain,  show  them  the  little  streamlets, 
which  are  typical  of  rivers  and  their  tribu- 
taries in  their  work  of  excavating  river-beds 
and  valleys. 

Make  electrical  experiments  with  the  silk 
samples  for  mamma's  dresses,  by  rubbing 
them  with  the  bottom  of  a  glass,  and  watch 
the  threads  when  approached  twice  succes- 
sively by  various  objects,  as  by  steel  knives, 
silver  spoons,  the  hand,  celluloid  or  gutta 
percha,  and  glass.  Comb  their  hair  or  your 
own  beard  in  the  dark  when  the  air  is  dry, 
and  let  them  see  the  sparks,  and  listen  to  the 
cracking  noise  of  this  baby-thunderstorm  in 
papa's  whiskers. 

Show  them  the  so-called  illusions  of  the 
senses  in  which  our  psychologists  take  so 
much  interest,  and  let  them  measure  the  dis- 
tances which,  though  they  are  equal,  appear 
different.^    It  will  interest  the  children,  and 

^  See  The  Monist,  Vol.  III.,  p.  153,  and  Scripture's 
Thinking,  Feeling,  and  Doing,  p.  187. 


124  OUR  CHILDREN. 

they  will  wonder  how  their  judgment  is  mis- 
guided. If  you  have  a  color-wheel  repeat 
now  and  then  for  mere  amusement  color  ex- 
periments and  show  the  effects  of  contrast. 
Whenever  you  buy  presents  for  children 
bear  always  in  mind  the  instructive  feature 
of  games  and  toys.  Children  are  by  nature 
anxious  to  learn,  and  they  will  themselves 
prefer  playthings  which  serve  to  educate 
them  and  teach  a  lesson.  A  toy  through 
which  a  child  becomes  familiar  with  a  phys- 
ical law  of  some  kind  is  the  best  investment 
you  can  make  and  will,  if  properly  used, 
amply  repay  the  cost.  Little  steam  engines, 
dynamos,  motors  and  mechanical  machinery 
of  all  kinds,  pumps,  fountains,  etc.,  are  now 
cheap  enough  to  be  the  toys  of  the  poor  as 
well  as  of  the  rich.  Of  course  parents  must 
let  their  children  work  steam  engines  only 
with  all  necessary  precaution;  they  should 
call  attention  to  the  danger  of  explosions 
and  after  a  few  practical  trials  should  sim- 
ply use  these  dangerous  toys  as  models  for 
instruction. 


FACTS  NOT  FANCY 

There  is  a  vicious  habit  now  in  vogue  in 
the  kindergarten  which  superadds  to  the 
facts  of  nature  the  imagination  of  fairy 
tales.  If  you  wish  your  children  to  acquire 
a  sound  conception  of  reality  and  a  sense 
for  genuine  poetry,  you  had  better  avoid 
this  pseudo-fiction  of  the  nursery  which  only 
distorts  nature  and  detracts  from  her  intrin- 
sic beauty.  Facts  as  they  are,  are  in  them- 
selves sufficiently  poetical  and  need  not  the 
false  glitter  of  a  fairy-tale  imitation.  This 
idea  of  carrying  the  romance  of  the  fairy- 
tale into  the  realm  of  science  only  revives 
and  strengthens  the  old  metaphysicism 
which  personifies  abstractions  and  is  apt 
later  on  to  mystify  the  young  mind.  Thus 
we  read  in  Arabella  B.  Buckley's  Fairy-land 
of  Science,  a  book  which  otherwise  contains 
many  good  things,  such  sentences  as  these 
pp.  12-13) : 

125 


126  OUR  CHILDREN, 

"Can  you  see  in  your  imagination  fairy  Co- 
hesion ever  ready  to  lock  atoms  together  when 
they  draw  very  near  to  each  other:  or  fairy 
Gravitation  dragging  rain-drops  down  to  the 
earth:  or  the  fairy  of  Crystallization  building 
up  the  snow-flakes  in  the  clouds?  ...  Do  you 
care  to  know  how  another  strange  fairy,  *  Elec- 
tricity/ flings  the  lightning  across  the  sky  and 
causes  the  rumbling  thunder?  .  .  .  And  have 
you  any  curiosity  about  'Chemical  action/ 
which  works  such  wonders  in  air,  and  land,  and 
sea  ?  If  you  have  any  wish  to  know  and  make 
friends  of  these  invisible  forces,  the  next  ques- 
tion is, 

**How  are  you  to  enter  the  fairy-land  of 
science  ? 

**  There  is  but  one  way.  Like  the  knight  or 
peasant  in  the  fairy  tales,  you  must  open  your 
eyes.  There  is  no  lack  of  objects,  everything 
around  you  will  tell  some  history  if  touched 
with  the  fairy  wand  of  imagination.  .  .  .  The 
fire  in  the  grate,  the  lamp  by  the  bedside,  the 
water  in  the  tumbler,  the  fly  on  the  ceiling 
above,  the  flower  in  the  vase  on  the  table,  any- 
thing, everything,  has  its  history,  and  can  re- 
veal to  us  nature's  invisible  fairies." 

This  is  not  the  right  way  of  making  sci- 
ence poetical.  The  facts  of  nature  are  in 
themselves    beautiful    and    need    not    the 


FACTS  NOT  FANCY.  127 

mythology  of  fairies  created  by  a  personifi- 
cation of  scientific  abstractions,  the  errone- 
ously so-called  forces  of  nature.  The  meta- 
physical assumption  of  forces  which  are 
supposed  to  work  all  the  miracles  of  natural 
phenomena  is  the  source  of  much  confusion 
and  should  be  carefully  guarded  against. 
If  any  personification  be  needed  for  the  sake 
of  imparting  an  additional  interest  to  the 
stories  of  nature,  speak  of  the  actual  things 
as  living  creatures.  Speak  of  the  water 
drop  as  expanding  into  vapor,  as  condens- 
ing in  the  cold  air  into  a  snow  crystal,  as 
falling  upon  the  ground,  as  melting  in  the 
warm  sun  and  running  down  hill,  but  do 
not  people  the  child's  mind  with  the  fairies 
of  crystalization,  gravitation,  cohesion,  elec- 
tricity, and  chemism.  Teach  children  to  see 
truth  and  beauty  in  the  facts  themselves,  not 
in  imaginary  goblins  and  fairies.  Make 
them  watch  the  phenomena  of  nature  and 
point  out  to  them  that  all  things  are  astir 
with  activity  and  aglow  with  an  eager  dis- 
position to  do  one  thing  or  another  accord- 
ing to  circumstances. 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES 

Acquaintance  with  foreign  languages 
should  be  cultivated  at  an  early  age,  by  in- 
teresting the  children  in  other  nations. 
Teach  children  little  German  and  French 
verses  and  phrases,  only  be  careful  that  the 
pronunciation  is  perfect.  Children  catch 
the  accent  of  strange  soimds  better  than 
adults,  and  will  reproduce  them  to  perfec- 
tion. According  to  the  author's  own  ex- 
perience, children  take  delight  in  listening 
again  and  again  to  little  ditties  and  poems, 
and  will  soon  begin  to  repeat  them.  It  is 
advisable  to  practise  such  linguistic  exer- 
cises before  going  to  sleep  and  to  rehearse 
on  the  next  morning  the  recitations  of  the 
previous  evening. 

We  recommend  such  poems  as  Lafon- 
taine's  fables  in  French,  some  of  Goethe's, 
Schiller's,  Biirger's,  and  Heine's  poems  in 
German,  ^sop's  fables  in  Latin,  the  Lord's 
Prayer  in  Greek,  etc.,  etc. 

128 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES.  129 

It  is  also  advisable  to  introduce  now  and 
then  counting  in  other  tongues,  which  may 
be  practised  in  the  gymnasium  where  the 
number  of  jumps  or  other  actions  can  be 
counted,  or  in  any  other  place  with  similar 
opportunities. 

Children  will  pick  up  foreign  sounds 
without  difficulty,  if  parents  or  teachers 
limit  their  instruction  to  the  sounds  only  and 
do  not  tax  the  minds  of  their  little  pupils 
with  grammatical  explanations.  The  sound 
must  come  first,  and  the  sound  alone;  the 
sense  of  the  sound  should  be  understood,  but 
an  exact  grammatical  analysis  of  its  mean- 
ing must  not  be  given  at  the  beginning,  for 
grammar  bores  children  and  is  apt  to  de- 
stroy the  pleasure  they  naturally  take  in 
learning  something  about  other  languages. 
If  children  have  learned  by  rote  a  number 
of  pieces  in  a  foreign  tongue,  when  they 
have  grown  older  and  maturer  they  will  be 
glad  to  know  something  about  the  construc- 
tion of  sentences,  and  a  grammar  lesson, 
otherwise  so  tedious,  will  then  be  welcome  to 
them.    Later  on,  a  long  time  after  they  have 


130  OUR  CHILDREN. 

learned  to  read  and  to  write  in  their  mother 
tongue,  children  may  in  school  be  taught  to 
read  and  write  the  foreign  poems  which 
they  have  learned  by  rote  in  their  younger 
years,  and  they  will  attend  their  French  and 
German  lessons  in  school  with  greater  zeal 
than  if  they  knew  nothing  of  these  lan- 
guages. 

It  may  be  permitted  to  add  here  a  few 
words  concerning  the  dead  languages  which 
in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America  are  still 
taught  in  the  old-fashioned  way.  The  au- 
thor of  these  articles  has  had  experience  in 
teaching  Latin  according  to  a  more  modem 
method,  and,  while  engaged  as  scientific 
teacher  at  the  Royal  Corps  of  Cadets  in 
Dresden,  Germany,  be  succeeded  within  the 
space  of  one  school  year  in  making  the  pu- 
pils of  his  class  (Quarta)  as  proficient  in 
speaking  and  in  writing  Latin  as  were  the 
best  scholars  of  the  highest  class  (Prima) 
after  a  four  years'  course. 

And  how  was  this  accomplished? 

Simply  by  making  the  boys  learn  by  heart 
every  week  a  few  lines  of  Latin  prose  or 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES.  131 

verse.  First  simple  stories  should  be  se- 
lected for  the  purpose,  in  the  style  of 
^sop's  fables,  then  passages  from  histo- 
rians and  orations  of  famous  men.  There  is 
plenty  of  material  in  Livy,  Caesar,  Cicero, 
and  also  in  Seneca,  and  the  verses  of  Ovid 
are  as  simple  as  the  occasion  requires.  The 
scholars  had  first  to  render  these  pieces  into 
Latin  from  an  oral  dictation  which  was 
given  them  in  their  mother-tongue.  Their 
translations  were  corrected  and  their  mis- 
takes discussed.  Copies  of  the  passage  had 
to  be  made  until  the  whole  piece  was  per- 
fect, and  finally  it  was  recited  before  the 
class.  This  method  of  teaching  Latin  was 
in  the  beginning  hard  on  some  of  the  boys, 
but  it  grew  easier  with  every  new  piece  that 
was  taught  and  learned.  The  old  pieces 
were  constantly  repeated,  and  all  grammat- 
ical rules  were  discussed  in  connection  with 
the  sentences  which  had  thus  been  com- 
mitted to  memory.  At  the  end  of  the  school 
year  the  boys  knew  about  forty  Latin  stories 
by  heart  and  were  thoroughly  familiar  with 
them.    In  this  way  they  had  a  direct  com- 


132  OUR  CHILDREN. 

mand  over  a  number  of  phrases  and  had  ac- 
quired an  unusual  readiness  in  their  prac- 
tical use  of  the  language,  a  result  which 
within  so  short  a  time  had  never  before  been 
accomplished  in  the  school. 

While  the  best  scholars  educated  in  the 
old  method  were  able  to  tell  the  rule  and 
follow  it,  these  boys  built  their  sentences 
correctly  without  thinking  of  the  rule  and 
deduced  grammatical  rules  from  the  in- 
stances which  they  knew  by  heart. 

A  teacher  of  languages  must  be  very  exact 
in  the  beginning, — slow  but  painstakingly 
correct  in  every  particular;  he  must  choose 
the  best  passages  for  committing  them  to 
memory;  he  must  insist  on  a  clear  pronun- 
ciation and  leave  no  doubt  about  the  details 
of  grammar  and  construction.  There  is  no 
use  in  rushing  the  boys,  or  overburdening 
them  with  home-work.  On  the  contrary,  the 
teacher  should  render  the  labor  of  commit- 
ting these  pieces  of  memory  easy  by  discuss- 
ing their  difficulties,  which  will  afford  ample 
opportunity  to  make  the  scholars  read  the 
sentences  and  repeat  them  as  pronounced  by 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES.  133 

the  teacher.  The  facility  which  pupils 
gradually  acquire  in  learning  a  language 
serves  to  keep  their  enthusiasm  alive,  until 
they  know  enough  to  allow  a  cursive  read- 
ing of  literature  which  will  involve  a  more 
rapid  progress  in  acquiring  a  general  pro- 
ficiency. 

I  would  make  bold  to  say  that  to  acquire 
the  command  of  at  least  one  living  tongue 
in  addition  to  our  own  is  an  indispensable 
condition  of  a  higher  education.  It  not  only 
broadens  the  mind  but  also  our  sympathies, 
for  thereby  we  learn  to  appreciate  other 
views  of  life,  the  beauties  of  foreign  litera- 
tures, and  the  accomplishments  of  other  na- 
tions. It  will  act  as  a  check  on  that  nar- 
rowness  of  national  prejudices,  often  mis- 
styled  patriotism,  and  will  contribute  much 
toward  an  establishment  of  international 
good  will,  so  highly  desirable  in  the  life  of 
a  civilized  people. 


MATHEMATICS 

Mathematical  instruction  should  begin 
very  early,  but  do  not  begin  with  axioms, 
theorems,  and  long-winded  arguments  with 
their  monotonous  refrain,  quod  erat 
demonstrandum.  That  is  death  to  the  spirit 
of  mathematics.  Not  only  is  the  doctrine, 
that  all  mathmatics  rest  upon  axioms  an 
error,*  but  to  begin  the  first  lesson  with  ex- 
planations of  axioms  is  a  blunder.  Let 
children  begin  to  learn  geometry  hy  doing, 
not  hy  reasoning.  Let  the  reasoning  come 
in  as  an  incidental  aid  to  construction.  Let 
the  purpose  be  that  of  achieving  something, 
but  never  do  any  reflecting  or  arguing  for 
the  mere  sake  of  thinking. 

Action  is  the  mainspring  of  life.  No  in- 
terest can  be  taken  in  anything,  except  there 
is  a  certain  aim  to  be  reached.  Thought 
must  step   in   as   the   assistant  to   work. 

*  For  further  details  on  the  redundancy  of  axioms  see 
the  writer's  Primer  of  Philosophy,  pp  51  et  seq. 

134 


MATHEMATICS.  135 

Thought  that  does  not  serve  a  purpose 
known  to  the  child,  will  be  felt  as  an  op- 
pressive tyranny.  Arguments  will  bore  the 
child  that  is  induced  to  reason  about  things 
before  it  feels  the  need  of  reasoning.  Par- 
ents and  teachers  must  not  presuppose  but 
create  in  the  child  the  desire  for  knowledge. 

In  order  to  lay  a  foundation  in  mathe- 
matics, parents  and  teachers  should  give  the 
child  paper  and  a  pencil.  Then  let  them 
make  a  ruler  of  the  paper  by  folding  it. 
The  fold  in  the  paper  is  called  a  straight 
line,  and,  if  folded  again  so  that  one  end  of 
the  straight  line  covers  the  other  end,  the 
new  fold  will  cut  the  old  fold  at  right 
angles.  These  definitions  of  straight  lines 
and  right  angles  should  be  introduced,  not 
argumentatively,  but  simply  by  naming  the 
products  of  the  child's  operations. 

After  this  brief  introduction,  hand  the 
child  a  pair  of  compasses,  giving  him  due 
warning  to  be  careful  with  the  points.  Let 
the  child  become  familiar  with  this  new  in- 
strument by  drawing  a  circle  and  dividing 
the  circumference  with  the  radius  into  six 


136  OUR  CHILDREN. 

equal  parts ;  which  will  serve  to  make  a  num- 
ber of  figures  of  various  forms  and  combina- 
tions, stars  with  curved  rays,  hexagons, 
equilateral  triangles,  and  six-cornered  stars. 

Another  time  ask  your  little  friend  to 
draw  a  straight  line  and  name  one  end  for 
himself,  the  other  end  for  his  brother,  sister, 
cousin,  or  friend.  Then  tell  him  to  divide 
the  line  with  the  assistance  of  the  compasses, 
and  construct  a  boimdary  line  at  right 
angles. 

Our  pair  of  compasses  is  a  good  fellow. 
He  has  no  head,  no  body,  but  two  long  legs 
and  can  pace  off  the  way  for  us.  By  sweep- 
ing with  the  same  span  of  somewhat  more 
than  half  of  the  line  from  both  its  ends,  we 
draw  two  intersecting  circles,  and  there  will 
be  few  children  who  will  not  at  once  jmnp 
at  the  conclusion  that  when  a  straight  line 
is  drawn  through  the  points  of  intersection, 
the  problem  will  be  solved. 

Thereupon  let  your  little  pupil  draw  an 
angle  for  himself  and  one  or  several  parallel 
angles  for  his  brothers  and  friends.  This 
would  be  an  appropriate  occasion  to  reveal 


MATHEMATICS.  137 

to  him  the  secrets  of  parallel  lines  with  their 
vertical,  alternating,  and  correspondent  an- 
gles. His  mathematical  comprehension  will 
now  be  mature  enough  to  understand  that  an 
angle  is  not  the  surface  between  its  sides, 
but  their  inclination,  and  that  angles  of  the 
same  inclination  are  equal. 

Having  divided  a  line  into  two  equal 
parts,  let  the  young  mathematician  divide 
an  angle,  which  he  will  now  easily  accom- 
plish. 

All  further  work  can  begin  to  bear  a  more 
definite  mathematical  character.  Let  the 
child  construct  triangles  from  three  sides, 
from  two  sides  and  one  angle,  from  two  an- 
gles and  one  side.  Call  his  attention,  with- 
out entering  into  details,  to  the  fact  that 
from  three  given  pieces  the  other  three  not- 
given  pieces  are  determined,  bearing  in 
mind  an  exception  which  leaves  the  choice 
between  two  possibilities ;  and  also  that  tri- 
angles may  be  turned  around. 

The  method  of  calculating  areas  can  be 
taught  to  beginners  by  telling  them  the  story 
of  a  farmer  who  exchanged  his  farm,  which 


188  OUR  CHILDREN. 

was  in  the  shape  of  a  square,  for  another 
one  of  exactly  the  same  sides  but  with 
slanting  angles.  The  farmer  soon  found  out 
that  there  was  less  work  in  plowing  and  less 
seed-corn  was  needed,  but  that  the  crop  too 
was  greatly  reduced.  The  man  was  no 
mathematician;  he  had  allowed  himself  to 
be  cheated.  The  solution  of  the  problem 
will  now  be  followed  up  with  great  interest 
and  can  easUy  be  accomplished. 

In  a  similar  way  let  the  children  operate 
with  circles  for  determining  the  nature  and 
interrelations  of  tangents,  sectors,  central, 
and  peripheral  angles,  etc.,  etc.,  and  let  them 
find  the  inscribed  and  circumscribed  circles 
of  triangles,  the  Pythagorean  proposition, 
etc.,  etc.  And  all  this  can  be  taught  in  a 
kindergarten  way,  without  ever  resorting  to 
arguments  and  demonstrations,  but  simply 
by  setting  the  child  to  work  and  giving  him 
a  task  to  accomplish.  When  he  has  come 
into  possession  of  a  fair  stock  of  mathemat- 
ical knowledge,  he  will  now  and  then  go 
astray  and  become  the  dupe  of  some  miscon- 
ception.   He  will  then  be  glad  to  become  ac- 


MATHEMATICS.  139 

quainted  with  methods  of  proof  which  will 
enable  him  to  argue  about  his  operations 
and  to  become  sure  that  his  constructions 
are  right. 

Arithmetic  should  in  the  same  way  be 
taught  by  setting  children  to  work,  i.  e.,  by 
making  them  do  something,  by  weighing,  by 
measuring,  and  by  comparing  different 
lengths,  areas,  and  volumes,  as  well  as  dif- 
ferent weights. 

In  spite  if  its  importance,  mathematics  is 
still  one  of  the  neglected  branches  in  the 
education  of  the  child,  while  much  progress 
has  been  made  in  the  primary  instruction  of 
drawing,  painting,  music,  and  physics,  where 
better  methods  suggest  themselves  more 
readily.  Mathematicians  of  high  standing 
devote  their  energies  to  a  furtherance  of  the 
most  abstruse  problems  of  their  craft  and 
have  so  far  not  as  yet  shown  any  ambition 
to  come  to  the  assistance  of  the  kindergarten 
and  primary  schools. 


MUSIC  IN  EDUCATION 

Music  is  not  indispensable  to  life.  There 
are  many  people  in  civilized  countries  and 
among  primitive  races  who  are  absolutely 
unmusical,  and  yet  they  do  not  seem  to  be 
the  worse  off  among  their  fellow  beings. 
For  this  reason,  it  might  be  considered  that 
music  is  redundant  and  could  be  omitted  in 
our  plan  of  education.  Nevertheless,  it  has 
been  retained  and  perhaps  not  without  good 
reason;  for  though  man  can  live  without  it 
he  is  greatly  benefited  by  it,  and  those  in 
whose  life  music  is  a  blank  miss  much  of 
the  broadening  and  refining  influences  which 
this  wonderful  art  affords. 

Music  is  a  world  of  its  own.  After  the 
analogy  of  mathematics  it  builds  up  a  uni- 
verse in  the  realm  of  imagination,  the  laws 
of  which  may  be  considered  purely  a  priori. 
Music  is  not  a  mere  mimicry  of  bird-song, 
or  of  any  noises  in  the  surrounding  world, 

140 


MUSIC  IN  EDUCATION.  141 

as  has  been  suggested  by  those  aestheticians 
who  believe  that  all  art  is  an  imitation  of 
nature.  Music  is  an  independent  construc- 
tion of  motives,  motions,  tonal  and  rhyth- 
mic progressions,  v^hich  take  place  in  the 
domain  of  sound-vibrations.  Musical 
themes  may  present  analogous  phases  to  the 
world  of  human  sentiment  and  action,  they 
may  accompany  outbursts  of  poetry;  they 
may  help  to  characterize  dramatic  action  on 
the  stage;  they  may  depict  pastoral,  mar- 
tial, or  other  events  of  human  life;  but 
we  must  remember  that  music  remains 
purely  tonal  and  never  changes  into  real 
imitation  of  the  occasions  for  which  it  has 
been  invented.  It  is  the  most  abstract  art, 
and  yet  in  spite  of  all  its  abstractness  it  is 
the  most  direct  in  its  effects.  Animals  are 
attracted  by  music  and  there  are  few  people 
even  among  the  musically  untrained  who 
would  not  be  stirred  by  the  strains  of  an  im- 
pressive melody. 

For  all  these  reasons  it  seems  desirable 
that  music  should  form  part  of  our  educa- 
tion.   By  its  means  we  learn  to  appreciate 


142  OUR  CHILDREN. 

that  a  representation  of  the  world  in  words 
is  not  the  only  possible  aspect  of  life,  and 
so  it  will  prevent  the  onesidedness  of  those 
who  think  that  they  have  exhausted  the 
comprehension  of  reality  after  they  have 
weighed  and  measured  its  materials  and 
have  reduced  its  phenomena  to  exact  for- 
mulas. Life  is  too  rich  to  be  limited  to  one 
mode  of  interpretation,  and  even  the  meth- 
ods of  science,  important  though  they  are, 
touch  only  the  hem  of  life's  garment. 
Music  is  an  instance  only  of  the  wealth  of 
mental  capabilities,  and  it  is  well  fitted  to 
the  purpose  of  illustrating  how  deep  is  the 
realm  of  sentiment  in  which  life  finds  its 
echo  and  reflection. 

The  usual  method  of  teaching  music  in 
the  schools  is  by  singing  which  is  indeed  the 
natural  beginning  of  developing  an  interest 
in  the  tonal  world ;  for  in  singing  we  create 
the  tones  ourselves  and  utilize  the  musical 
instrument  which  nature  herself  has  given 
us — an  instrument  which  is  part  of  our- 
selves and  echoes  in  most  direct  reflection 
the  sentiments  of  our  inmost  souls.    Sec- 


MUSIC  IN  EDUCATION.  143 

ond  to  singing,  the  piano  is  commonly  intro- 
duced, but  here  I  venture  to  disagree  with 
the  common  practice.  It  is  true  that  the 
piano  contains  the  most  complete  arrange- 
ment for  practical  use  and  is  the  instru- 
ment on  which  our  typical  conception  of 
music  has  been  developed.  A  knowledge  of 
the  piano  is  therefore  indispensable  to  a  mu- 
sical education,  but  it  does  not  recommend 
itself  for  educational  purposes  because  the 
notes  on  the  piano  are  ready  made  and  the 
pupil  has  simply  to  touch  the  keys  to  pro- 
duce the  tone,  while  the  correctness  of  the 
note  depends  on  the  instrument  and  not  on 
the  player.  For  educational  purposes  the 
violin  would  be  by  far  preferable  because  on 
the  violin  the  player  produces  his  own  notes, 
and  if  his  notes  are  incorrect  he  has  no  right 
to  complain,  for  he  has  to  tune  the  violin 
and  every  note  he  plays  is  of  his  own  mak- 
ing. For  this  reason  I  would  consider  it 
desirable  for  any  musical  education,  that  a 
pupil  should  at  least  for  some  time  be  taught 
the  violin  and  learn  to  handle  that  instru- 
ment with  some  degree  of  skill. 


144  OUR  CHILDREN. 

Of  late  the  musical  world  has  been  bene- 
fited by  a  new  invention  which  seems  to  me 
to  promise  great  success.  The  invention  of 
the  pianola,  or  by  whatever  name  the  piano- 
playing  instrument  may  go,  has  made  acces- 
sible to  large  multitudes  the  knowledge  of 
musical  composition.  Until  its  introduc- 
tion, acquaintance  with  good  music  was  re- 
served only  for  specialists  and  concert- 
goers,  and  the  difficulty  of  the  technique 
rendered  it  impossible  for  common  mortals 
to  familiarize  themselves  with  a  great  vari- 
ety of  music.  Concert-goers  hear  a  sonata 
once  and  perhaps  a  second  or  third  time,  but 
not  often  enough  to  become  truly  familiar 
with  the  intentions  of  the  composer.  The 
result  is  that  they  will  be  bored  the  first 
time,  and  that  the  meaning  of  the  beauty 
of  classical  music  will  rarely  dawn  upon 
them  and  only  after  a  long  time.  It  is  for 
these  reasons  that  truly  good  music  is  not 
sufficiently  appreciated  while  rag-time  melo- 
dies which  catch  the  ear  with  impressive 
syncopation  receive  the  plaudits  of  the 
masses.    Now  the  piano-player  wiQ  tend  to 


MUSIC  IN  EDUCATION.  145 

do  away  with  these  difficulties.  It  will  en- 
able people  of  musical  disposition  who  have 
not  the  time  to  acquire  the  necessary  tech- 
nique for  enjoying  truly  good  music  to  study 
the  works  of  composers  before  they  have  a 
chance  of  hearing  them  in  a  concert,  and 
they  will  find  that  a  sonata  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  tedious  to  them  will  prove 
not  only  interesting  but  also  instructive  and 
helpful.  They  will  be  able  to  follow  the 
music  knowing  the  succession  of  the  dif- 
ferent motives  and  in  place  of  ennui  will  ex- 
perience satisfaction. 

Artists  as  a  rule  are  opposed  to  the  piano 
player,  and  their  dislike  is  easily  accounted 
for  and  to  some  extent  justified.  It  changes 
an  artistic  performance  into  a  mechanical 
reproduction,  and  thus  threatens  to  take 
from  music  its  most  essential  and  truly  ar- 
tistic feature, — ^individual  conception  and 
interpretation.  But  this  is  no  reason  why 
the  use  of  the  piano  player  should  not  be 
encouraged.  The  same  objection  was  of- 
fered against  the  introduction  of  the  photo- 
graph, which  threatened  to  subvert  the  ar- 


148  OUR  CHILDREN. 

tistic  work  of  the  painter,  and  in  tliis  case 
too,  we  see  a  mechanical  performance  dis- 
place artistic  reproduction.  It  is  true  that 
the  photograph  has  crowded  a  great  num- 
ber of  portrait  painters  out  of  business  and 
has  made  picture  making  a  common  posses- 
sion, even  among  those  who  do  not  possess 
skill  in  drawing.  Nevertheless,  it  has  not 
only  benefited  mankind  as  a  whole,  but  the 
professional  artist  also;  for  the  mediocre 
limners  have  disappeared,  and  the  standard 
of  pictorial  art  has  been  raised,  rendering 
paintings  much  more  valuable  than  photo- 
graphs, and  portraits  in  oil  even  more  de- 
sirable than  before  the  days  of  the  profes- 
sional gallery  and  amateur  camera. 

After  these  comments  it  goes  without  say- 
ing that  the  piano-player  will  become  help- 
ful and  valuable  in  musical  education  of  any 
kind.  It  brings  within  reach  the  knowledge 
of  our  best  masterpieces  and  will  enable 
every  one  to  familiarize  himself  without 
much  effort  with  studies  which  may  be  col- 
lateral to  his  own  specialty. 


PLAYFUL  INSTRUCTION,  AND 
GENIUS 

An  old  friend  of  mine  asked  me  some  time 
ago  whether  it  was  advisable  to  begin  teach- 
ing children  at  a  tender  age,  not  of  course 
by  systematic  lessons,  but  by  playful  in- 
struction. One  of  the  professors  of  a  school 
had  advised  him  not  to  impart  any  playful 
instruction,  ''because,"  he  said,  ''instruo- 
tion  is  a  serious  thing,  and  if  it  were  taught 
playfully  it  would  demoralize  the  boy's  na- 
ture. He  would  never  learn  to  apply  him- 
self with  seriousness  in  later  life." 

The  reason  of  this  advice  is  good,  but  the 
advice  itself  is  bad.  The  spirit  of  the  old 
schoolmaster's  advice  can  be  recommended, 
for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  is  indeed  a 
serious  thing  and  should  be  taken  seriously, 
but  the  professor's  logic  is  perverse.  It  is 
true  enough  that  the  time  will  come  when 
children  must  learn  to  apply  themselves 

147 


148  OUR  CHILDREN. 

seriously,  but  that  is  no  reason  why  children 
should  not  acquire  playfully  as  much  knowl- 
edge as  they  possibly  can.  Would  it  be 
right  to  prevent  mental  growth  ?  Certainly 
not!  On  the  contrary,  mental  growth 
should  be  fostered  by  all  means  in  our 
power.  Our  aim,  however,  must  not  be  to 
change  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  into 
sport,  but  to  utilize  the  plays  of  the  child  for 
the  higher  ends  of  education. 

It  is  a  design  of  nature  to  let  the  life  of 
adult  creatures  be  foreshadowed  in  the 
games  of  the  young;  and  educators  are 
bound  to  take  the  hint. 

The  plays  of  children  should  not  be 
simply  a  waste  of  time,  but  ought  to  be  util- 
ized for  furthering  their  intellectual  life. 
They  should  serve  higher  purposes  than 
merely  to  keep  the  little  folk  out  of  mis- 
chief. The  old  schoolmaster's  maxim, 
therefore,  is  wrong,  although  his  intentions 
may  be  appreciated;  and  we  must  let  the 
child  learn  playfully  as  much  as  possible. 

Let  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  appear  on 
the  child 's  toys ;  let  him  become  familiar  with 


PLAYFUL  INSTRUCTION.  140 

the  various  pursuits  of  life  in  his  games; 
let  his  little  hands  become  accustomed  to  the 
shovel,  the  pick-ax,  the  drill,  the  plane,  and, 
if  certain  precautions  are  taken,  also  the 
knife,  the  scissors,  and  the  compasses.  Let 
him  hear  in  great  outlines  and  in  the 
simplest  words  the  stories  of  invention,  the 
deeds  of  heroes,  and  the  feats  of  discoverers. 
When  the  time  comes  for  him  to  apply  him- 
self with  greater  concentration  upon  school 
work  he  will  be  better  prepared  for  it.  The 
exertion  will  be  easier  for  him,  his  labors 
will  be  lessened,  and  he  will  pass  through 
his  studies  more  joyfully  than  the  boys  to 
whom,  for  the  mere  purpose  of  teaching 
them  the  seriousness  of  learning,  the  ac- 
quisition of  useful  knowledge  is  made  irk- 
some. 

Seriousness  in  the  performance  of  duties 
is  of  great  importance  in  life,  but  serious- 
ness is  nothing  if  it  is  not  guided  by  intel- 
ligence and  accompanied  by  zeal.  Our 
young  folk,  in  order  to  learn  to  apply  them- 
selves, must  be  taught  to  love  work  and  be 
anxious   to   do   something.     Their   enthu- 


160  OUR  CHILDREN. 

siasm  must  be  roused  and  their  endeavors 
must  be  guided  at  an  early  age. 

For  this  purpose  the  kindergarten  has 
been  invented  and  is  doing  splendid  work. 

No  doubt  that  there  are  kindergartens 
which  are  not  conducted  in  the  right  spirit. 
Instead  of  lifting  the  children  up  to  a  high- 
er level  and  helping  them  to  understand  the 
significance  of  life,  some  of  the  teachers 
stoop  to  them  and  let  childishness  have  full 
sway.  Instead  of  teaching  the  little  folk 
playfully  how  to  work,  giving  them  glimpses 
of  truth  and  the  elements  of  right  conduct, 
they  dissipate  them  by  idle  plays  and  foster 
the  spirit  of  sport.  But  in  all  innovations 
it  is  natural  that  mistakes  will  be  made,  and 
we  need  not  for  that  reason  reject  the  whole 
system. 

The  kindergarten  is  a  great  advance  in 
our  educational  methods;  and  when  public 
kindergartens  shall  be  instituted  all  over  the 
country  we  may  expect  a  decided  and  notice- 
able improvement  of  the  race  accompanied 
by  an  increase  of  intelligence  and  a  decrease 
of  crime. 


PLAYFUL  INSTRUCTION.  151 

In  a  former  number  of  one  of  our  best 
magazines/  an  educational  writer,  appar- 
ently a  grammar-school  teacher  who  took  a 
dislike  to  the  pupils,  and  perhaps  also  to 
the  principal,  of  a  special  kindergarten, 
condemns  the  whole  system  for  its  lack  of 
seriousness.  She  claims  that  the  kindergar- 
ten children  expect  interesting  stories  and 
not  instruction,  they  want  amusement,  and 
refuse  to  pay  attention;  they  go  to  school 
to  play,  not  to  work. 

Granting  that  there  are  kindergartens 
which  are  not  yet  conducted  with  the  neces- 
sary seriousness  and  that  mistakes  are  made, 
we  must  also  know  that  seeds  sometimes 
fall  by  the  wayside  or  on  rock.  If  there 
are  some  kindergartens  that  fail  to  produce 
the  right  results,  this  is  no  reason  for  doing 
away  with  the  method  altogether. 

The  kindergarten  is  not  for  play,  but  for 
playfully  imparting  lessons,  and  the  main 
thing  to  be  taught  must  be  method ;  method 
in  smaU  things,  in  games,  in  behavior,  and 
in   human   activity   generally.    Far   from 

1  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  March,  1899,  pp.  358-366. 


152  OUR  CHILDREN. 

abolishing  the  kindergarten,  we  would  advo- 
cate its  extension  and  the  introduction  of 
certain  of  its  methods  into  the  high  schools 
and  universities. 

The  gist  of  the  educational  problem  is 
this:  Teach  the  methods  of  work  and  the 
elements  of  any  science  or  art,  not  in  a  dry 
and  abstract  manner,  but  by  infusing  enthu- 
siasm into  the  pupils.  Lessons  can  be  made 
interesting  by  pointing  out  the  connection 
which  the  object  of  instruction  has  with 
life  by  shovdng  its  value  in  the  economy  of 
human  society,  and  indicating  the  wants 
which  it  serves.  Pupils  must  feel  the  thrill 
which  the  inventors  and  scholars  feel  in 
their  attempts  at  making  discoveries  and 
solving  the  various  riddles  of  life. 

The  kindergarten  method  will  accomplish 
miracles  in  the  field  of  education.  It  is  a 
new  dispensation,  a  dispensation  of  love,  of 
voluntary  good  will,  stimulating  the  springs 
that  work  from  within,  which  must  replace 
the  old  dispensation  of  the  rod,  the  law  that 
enforces  virtue  by  punishments  and  makes 
noble  and  good  aspirations  a  burden. 


PLAYFUL  INSTRUCTION.  153 

A  spiritual  sunshine  should  spread  over 
all  exercises  of  the  kindergarten,  but  for 
that  reason  there  need  be  no  dillydallying 
with  toys.  The  teacher  must  never  lose 
sight  of  the  ultimate  aim,  which  is  the  build- 
ing up  of  character.  She  herself  must 
therefore  at  once  be  earnest  and  cheerful, 
qualities  which  it  is  by  no  means  impossible 
to  combine,  and  while  she  keeps  her  chil- 
dren buoyant  and  joyful,  she  must  not  fail 
to  impress  them  with  the  importance  of 
duty,  of  application,  of  seriousness. 

It  might  be  an  improvement  in  the  sys- 
tem of  the  kindergarten  if  it  were  not  ex- 
clusively in  the  hands  of  women,  and  if  at 
least  from  time  to  time  the  influence  of  male 
teachers  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
children. 

Old-fashioned  teachers  who  still  cling  to 
the  method  of  rendering  lessons  tedious, 
must,  from  sheer  prejudice,  have  become 
blind  to  the  results  that  can  be  obtained  in 
this  way ;  for  it  is  remarkable  how  persever- 
ing and  patient  children  can  be  when  they 
are  interested  in  a  certain  kind  of  work. 


104  OUR  CHILDREN. 

The  difference  between  a  genius  and  a 
pedant  consists  exactly  in  this,  that  the  gen- 
ius performs  his  work  playfully,  while  the 
pedant  groans  under  the  drudgery  of  his 
task.  No  doubt  the  pedant  ^s  work  would  be 
preferable,  if  its  worth  were  to  be  measured 
by  the  resistance  overcome,  but  the  fact  is 
that  the  work  of  the  genius  always  increases 
in  excellence  according  to  the  ease  with 
which  it  is  accomplished. 

Genius  is  sometimes  looked  upon  as  a 
mystery,  but  there  is  no  mystery  about  it. 
While  it  is  difficult  and  often  impossible  to 
account  for  the  appearance  of  genius  in  spe- 
cial cases,  because  it  crops  out  where  we  least 
expect  it,  its  nature  in  and  of  itself  is  no 
mystery.  The  soul  of  a  genius  consists  of 
motor  ideas  which  are  correct  representa- 
tions of  things  in  the  objective  world  and  of 
the  work  to  be  performed.  They  interact 
without  the  laborious  effort  of  conscious 
concentration.  They  act  with  machine-like 
accuracy,  so  as  to  allow  all  attention  to  be 
concentrated  upon  the  main  purpose  of  the 
work  and  not  upon  its  details.    A  genius 


PLAYFUL  INSTRUCTION.  166 

originates  partly  by  inheriting  a  disposition 
for  easily  acquiring  certain  functions,  or 
generally  by  possessing  the  knack  of  view- 
ing the  world  correctly.  Whatever  may  be 
the  cause  of  genius,  it  certainly  shows  itself 
in  the  playful  ease  with  which  work  of 
great  importance  is  performed.  It  would 
be  wrong  to  think  that  a  genius  need  not 
work,  for  a  genius  as  a  rule  is  a  great 
worker,  but  he  enjoys  his  work  and  can 
therefore  accomplish  more  than  those  who 
constantly  remain  conscious  of  the  serious- 
ness of  their  labors. 

Genius  is  instinct  on  a  higher  plane. 
Certain  inherited  dispositions  are  probably 
indispensable  for  producing  a  genius  of  a 
certain  kind  and  it  may  be  that  an  educator 
can  do  nothing  when  they  are  absolutely  ab- 
sent. Nevertheless  much  can  be  done  by  a 
careful  education.  The  impressions  of 
children  who,  in  a  certain  line  of  activity, 
see  nothing  but  the  right  methods  from  their 
very  babyhood,  will  be  so  organized  that 
from  their  imconscious  depths  up  to  the  con- 
scious surface  of  their  soul,  they  will  be  pre- 


166  OUR  CHILDREN. 

determined  to  hit  naturally  the  right  mode 
of  action.  The  child  of  a  musician,  for  in- 
stance, who  has  never  heard  anything  but 
good  music,  and  has  playfully  acquired  since 
his  very  babyhood  the  various  experiences 
of  touch  by  contact  with  the  keys  of  a  piano, 
will  naturally  become  a  virtuoso.  He  will 
naturally  find  the  right  harmony,  and  the 
great  wealth  of  melody  that  unconsciously 
slumbers  in  his  early  recollections  will  form 
a  source  of  living  tone-images,  which  upon 
the  least  provocation  will  well  up  automat- 
ically and  engender  new  combinations  of 
harmonious  melodies  that,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  other  conditions,  may  possess  a 
character  of  their  own. 

What  is  true  of  music  is  true  of  poetry, 
oratory,  all  arts,  the  sciences,  handicrafts, 
and  industrial  pursuits.  The  condition  of 
genius  is  a  ready  and  automatic  interaction 
of  a  sufficient  number  of  clear  and  correct 
thought  images,  or  representative  pictures, 
which  must  be  brought  imder  the  control  of 
a  guiding  purpose. 


PLAYFUL  INSTRUCTION.  157 

Mr.  Nicola  Tesla's  lecture  before  the 
Commercial  Club  of  Chicago  (May  14, 1899) 
was  of  special  interest  to  the  psychologist. 
He  dwelt  at  length  on  the  vividness  of  his 
visual  conceptions  which  appeared  before 
his  eye  like  real  things.  Thus  he  would, 
when  speaking  of  a  cat,  see  a  real  cat;  or 
when  thinking  of  a  machine,  see  a  machine 
in  all  its  details  and  in  accurate  proportions 
so  plainly  as  to  enable  him  to  make  meas- 
urements. This  condition  was  oppressive 
to  him  in  childhood  and  early  youth,  so  long 
as  he  could  not  control  it;  and  he  felt  re- 
lieved as  if  ridding  himself  of  a  nightmare 
when  with  increasing  strength  in  his  riper 
youth  he  succeeded  in  gaining  control  over 
the  appearance  and  disappearance  of  these 
images. 

The  whole  method  of  making  education 
irksome  is  wrong.  It  reminds  one  of  the 
Gothamites  who,  according  to  the  principle 
that  we  should  do  the  disagreeable  part  of 
the  task  first,  unloaded  the  wood  from  their 
wagons  by  pulling  out  the  lowest  trunks 
first,  which  they  did  with  great  difficulty; 


168  OUR  CHILDREN. 

and  they  were  delighted  that  by  and  by  the 
work  grew  easier.  They  rejoiced  when  the 
last  pieces  could  be  simply  taken  off  with- 
out trouble. 

Why  not  begin  to  teach  children  without 
causing  them  trouble  from  the  beginning? 
All  learning  is  a  pleasure,  and  our  teachers 
will  find  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  make  in- 
struction irksome  to  children  during  their 
school  years.  Acquisition  of  knowledge  is 
a  growth  of  soul,  and  our  children  ought  to 
feel  the  joy  of  mental  growth.  There  need 
be  no  fear  that  their  minds  will  be  dwarfed 
thereby.  On  the  contrary,  they  will  devel- 
op all  the  better,  as  plants  that  are  trans- 
planted from  a  barren  land  to  fertile  soil, 
or  from  the  shade  to  the  sim,  and  when  the 
time  arrives  in  which  some  great  purpose 
will  demand  special  concentration,  the  grow- 
ing boy  will  apply  himself  with  all  the  vigor 
of  his  youthful  ambition. 

A  youth  will  be  more  confident  of  success 
in  life  if  he  has  been  playfully  made  accus- 
tomed to  its  serious  duties  and  to  their  diffi- 
culties, and  he  will  thereby  acquire  a  buoy- 


PLAYFUL  INSTRUCTION.  169 

aney  which  under  the  present  conditions  of 
education  is  rare.  We  must,  however,  see 
to  it  that  the  seriousness  of  work,  far  from 
suffering  from  playful  instruction,  shall  be 
intensified  and  strengthened  by  it. 

There  is  another  method  of  imparting  a 
serious  spirit  to  our  children  than  by  en- 
countering them  with  frowns  or  making  wry 
faces  at  them  when  they  do  not  sufficiently 
appreciate  the  gravity  of  their  duties  and 
school  lessons :  it  is  to  show  them  the  grav- 
ity and  the  purpose  of  their  work.  Gravity 
of  purpose  can  very  well  be  combined  with 
a  playful  enthusiasm  in  which  the  purpose 
is  accomplished.  Let  us  not  destroy  the 
buoyancy  of  youth  by  installing  gravity  in 
the  wrong  place.  It  is  remarkable  how 
playfully  and  how  joyously,  and  with  what 
intense  endurance  a  boy  will  work,  if  he  has 
a  purpose. 


EATIONALISM  IN  THE  NURSERY 

When  rationalism,  as  a  religious  move- 
ment, first  dawned  on  the  world,  it  was  ex- 
aggerated to  such  an  extent  and  carried  into 
such  improper  fields,  that  it  became  ridicu- 
lous as  a  theory  and  a  religion.  Reason, 
however,  we  must  remember,  is  the  most  es- 
sential feature  of  the  human  soul,  and  the 
proper  training  of  reason  is  indispensable. 
It  is  of  such  importance  that  it  ought  to  be- 
gin at  an  early  date,  and  the  application  of 
reason  should  extend  to  all  the  questions  of 
life,  secular  and  religious. 

As  to  the  use  of  reason  in  religion  we 
must  distinguish  between  what  is  rational 
and  rationalistic.  The  rational  ought  to  be 
welcome,  while  the  rationalistic  is  a  misap- 
plication of  the  rational. 

There  are  some  great  religious  teachers, 
such  as  St.  Augustine  and  Luther,  who  un- 
qualifiedly declare  that  religion  must  from 

160 


RATIONALISM.  161 

its  very  nature  appear  irrational  to  us. 
They  claim  that  reason  has  no  place  in  re- 
ligion, and  must  not  be  allowed  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  it.  The  ultimate  basis  of 
a  religious  conviction,  they  urge,  is  not 
knowledge  but  belief, —  a  view  which  in  its 
utmost  extreme  is  tersely  expressed  in  the 
famous  sentence,  Credo  quia  ahsurdum, — 
*'  I  believe  it  because  it  is  absurd."  In  op- 
position to  this  one-sided  conception  of  the 
nature  of  religion,  rationalists  arose  who  at- 
tempted to  cleanse  religion  of  all  irrational 
elements,  and  their  endeavors  have  been 
crowned  with  great  results.  We  owe  to 
their  efforts  the  higher  development  of  re- 
ligion, and  must  acknowledge  that  they  were 
among  the  heroes  who  liberated  us  from  the 
bondage  of  superstition. 

Nevertheless,  the  rationalistic  movement, 
or  that  movement  in  history  which  goes  by 
the  name  of  Rationalism,  is  as  one-sided  as 
its  adversary.  Without  any  soul  for  po- 
etry, its  apostles  removed  from  the  holy  leg- 
ends the  miraculous  as  well  as  the  supernat- 
ural, and  were  scarcely  aware  of  how  pro- 


162  OUR  CHILDREN. 

saic,  flat,  and  insipid  religion  became  under 
this  treatment.  On  the  one  hand  they  re- 
ceived the  accounts  of  the  Bible  in  sober 
earnestness  like  historical  documents;  on 
the  other  hand  they  did  not  recognize  that 
the  main  ideas  presented  in  religious  writ- 
ings were  of  such  a  nature  as  to  need  the 
dress  of  myth.  We  know  now  that  the 
worth  and  value  of  our  religious  books  does 
not  depend  upon  their  historical  accuracy, 
but  upon  the  moral  truths  which  they  con- 
vey. We  do  not  banish  fairy-tales  from  the 
nursery  because  we  have  ceased  to  believe 
in  fairies  and  ogres.  These  stories  are  in 
their  literal  sense  absurd  and  impossible, 
yet  many  of  them  contain  gems  of  deep 
thought;  many  of  them  contain  truths  of 
great  importance.  The  rationalistic  move- 
ment started  from  wrong  premises  and  pur- 
sued its  investigations  on  erroneous  princi- 
ples. Our  rationalists  tried  to  correct  the 
letter  and  expected  to  thus  purify  the  spirit. 
But  they  soon  found  it  beyond  their  power 
to  restore  the  historical  truth,  and  in  the 
meantime  lost  sight  of  the  spirit.      They 


RATIONALISM.  163 

were  like  the  dissector  who  seeks  to  dis- 
cover the  secret  of  life  by  cutting  a  living 
organism  into  pieces ;  or  like  a  chemist,  who 
with  the  purpose  of  investigating  the  nature 
of  a  clock,  analyses  the  chemical  elements  of 
its  wheels  in  his  alembic.  The  meaning  of 
religious  truth  cannot  be  found  simply  by 
rationalizing  the  miraculous  element  in  the 
holy  legends  of  our  religious  traditions. 

Rationalism  is  a  natural  phase  of  the  evo- 
lution of  religious  thought,  but  it  yields  no 
final  solution  of  the  problem.  In  a  similar 
way  our  classical  historians  attempted  in  a 
certain  phase  of  the  development  of  criti- 
cism to  analyse  Homer  and  the  classical  leg- 
ends. They  rationalized  them  by  removing 
the  miracles  and  other  irrational  elements, 
and  naively  accepted  the  rest  as  history. 
The  historian  of  to-day  has  given  up  this 
method  and  simply  presents  the  classical 
legends  in  the  shape  in  which  they  were  cur- 
rent in  old  Greece.  Legends  may  be  unhis- 
torical,  what  they  tell  may  never  have  hap- 
pened, yet  they  are  powerful  realities  in  the 
development  of  a  nation.    They  may  be  even 


1C4  OUR  CHILDREN. 

more  powerful  than  historical  events,  for 
they  depict  ideals,  and  ideals  possess  a  form- 
ative faculty.  They  arouse  the  enthusiasm 
of  youth  and  shape  man's  actions,  and  must 
therefore  be  regarded  as  among  the  most  po- 
tent factors  in  practical  life. 

We  regard  the  rationalistic  treatment  of 
Bible  stories  as  a  mistake,  yet  for  that  rea- 
son we  do  not  accept  the  opposite  view  of 
the  intrinsic  irrationality  of  religion.  We 
do  not  renounce  reason;  we  do  not  banish 
rational  thought  from  the  domain  of  reli- 
gion. Although  we  regard  any  attempt  at 
rationalizing  religious  legends  as  a  grave 
blunder,  we  are  nevertheless  far  from  con- 
sidering reason  as  anti-religious.  On  the 
contrary,  we  look  upon  reason  as  the  spark 
of  divinity  in  man.  Reason  is  that  faculty 
by  virtue  of  which  we  can  say  that  man  has 
been  created  in  the  image  of  God.  Without 
reason  man  would  be  no  higher  than  the 
beast  of  the  field.  Without  rational  criti- 
cism religion  would  be  superstition  pure  and 
simple,  and  we  demand  that  religion  shall 
never  come  in  conflict  with  reason.    Reli- 


RATIONALISM.  16S 

gion  must  be  in  perfect  accord  with  science ; 
it  must  never  come  into  collision  with  ra- 
tional thought.  Reason  after  all  remains 
the  guiding-star  of  our  life.  Without  rea- 
son our  existence  would  be  shrouded  in  dark- 
ness. 

If  children  hear  stories  that  are  irrational 
there  is  no  need  of  telling  them  flatly  that 
the  story  is  not  true,  but  it  will  be  wise  to 
ask  the  question,  Is  that  possible?  Chil- 
dren are  sure  to  take  certain  things  as  facts 
without  thinking  of  applying  criticism. 
Their  little  souls  are  as  yet  blanks. 
How  is  it  possible  to  expect  in  them  the  crit- 
ical attitude  of  a  scholar?  If  children  see 
pictures  of  angels,  or  devils,  or  fairies,  they 
will  believe  them  to  be  as  they  see  them, 
without  questioning  the  possibility  of  such 
beings. 

It  was  characteristic  of  a  child's  mind 
when  a  little  three  year  old  boy  once  asked 
one  of  his  aunties,  **  Have  you  ever  seen  an 
angel?  ''  and  she  replied,  *'  No,  have  you?  '* 
^*  Yes,"  he  said  confidently,  **  in  my  picture 
book.''    That  things  can  be  pictured  which 


166  OUR  CHILDREN. 

are  not  realities,  is  an  idea  that  has  not  as 
yet  entered  the  mind  of  a  young  child.  And 
it  will  be  wise  not  to  tell  him  directly  that 
certain  pictures  are  imrealities,  but  to  guide 
his  opinion  and  help  him  to  form  his  own 
judgment. 

Children  are  liable  to  lose  the  moral  of  a 
fairy  tale  if  they  are  told  at  once  that  fairies 
and  ogres  are  unrealities.  It  will  for  a  time 
be  sufficient  to  tell  them  it  is  a  story  and 
never  mind  whether  it  actually  happened  or 
not.  And  if  the  moral  of  the  story  now  and 
then  finds  application  in  their  experiences 
they  will  learn  to  appreciate  it,  and  yet  dis- 
tinguish between  poetry  and  reality.  They 
will  acquire  a  taste  for  poetry  without  fall- 
ing a  prey  to  romanticism. 

There  is  a  difference  between  true  and 
real.  A  thing  is  real  that  is  concrete  and  ac- 
tual ;  history  is  real,  and  all  things  real  are 
instances  of  general  laws.  A  truth  is  the 
recognition  and  correct  knowledge  of  a  gen- 
eral law ;  and  the  lesson  of  a  general  law  in 
the  moral  world  may  sometimes  be  better 
set  forth  in  an  invented  story  than  in  inci- 


RATIONALISM.  167 

dents  that  have  actually  happened.  In  this 
sense  a  story,  a  myth,  a  legend,  may  be  un- 
historical,  unreal,  and  even  absurdly  impos- 
sible, and  yet  be  true  in  its  significance. 
Children  do  not,  of  course,  at  once  appreci- 
ate this  distinction  between  truth  and  histor- 
ical actuality,  and  one  of  my  little  boys  for 
a  long  time  refused  to  listen  to  **  stories  that 
were  not  true,'^  as  he  said.  He  objected  to 
fairy  tales  as  not  being  based  upon  facts, 
preferring  to  hear  the  account  of  the  inven- 
tion of  steam  engines  or  of  the  landing  of 
the  Pilgrims.  It  almost  seemed  for  a  long 
time  as  though  he  had  no  sense  for  poetry ; 
but  by  and  by  he  learned  to  like  certain  fairy 
tales  whose  spirit  he  appreciated  —  for  in- 
stance, of  the  boy  who  knew  no  fear  and 
who,  when  he  went  abroad  to  learn  what 
fear  was,  gained  a  kingdom. 

Parents  must  develop  the  critical  sense 
of  their  children  without  destroying  poetry 
and  the  enjoyment  of  fiction.  If  children 
prefer  the  one  or  the  other  extreme,  let  them 
freely  develop  it  and  fear  not  that  they  will 
become  over-credulous  or  over-critical,  that 


168  OUR  CHILDREN. 

they  will  become  superstitious  through  a  be- 
lief in  fairy  tales,  or  prosaic  on  account  of 
their  objection  to  stories  that  are  not  true. 
Every  child  passes  through  successive 
phases  in  its  mental  development,  and  it  will 
only  assimilate  the  impressions  and  informa- 
tion for  which  its  budding  mind  is  ready. 
If  these  phases  show  an  occasional  onesided- 
ness,  parents  need  not  worry,  for  mankind, 
at  large,  also  had  its  phases,  and  the  reli- 
gious evolution  of  the  race  necessarily 
passed  through  the  mythological  and  dog- 
matic period. 

The  same  rule  that  applies  to  fairy  tales 
holds  good  in  the  realm  of  religious  legends 
and  stories.  The  parents'  rule  might  be: 
Give  the  children  every  chance  of  forming 
their  own  opinion,  and  let  them  acquire  in- 
formation of  all  kinds  in  whatever  way  life 
may  offer  it  to  them.  Let  childi'en  go  to 
churches,  witness  religious  processions,  at- 
tend Sunday-school,  but  preserve  under  all 
conditions  their  independence  of  judgment 
without  directly  forestalling  the  decision  to 
which  they  are  ultimately  liable  to  come. 


RATIONALISM.  169 

Parents  who  wish  to  insist  on  a  rational 
comprehension  of  religious  truths  need  not 
be  in  a  hurry  to  influence  the  souls  of  their 
little  ones.  If  they  give  them  outright  the 
results  of  free  investigation  instead  of 
merely  stimulating  their  critical  powers  by 
questions  and  suggestions,  they  are  liable 
to  make  them  shallow,  and  instead  of  mak- 
ing them  rational  will  make  them  rational- 
istic. 

One  of  my  little  boys,  now  eight  years  old, 
recently  learned  to  skate  on  the  ice.  He 
could  do  it  so  long  as  he  remained  imcon- 
scious  of  himself,  but  he  gave  up  at  once  af- 
ter his  first  accident,  because  the  thought  of 
falling  frightened  him.  When  I  told  him 
that  he  could  do  it  if  he  only  had  confidence 
in  himself,  he  answered,  ^'  Isn't  there  a  truth 
in  the  story  of  St.  Peter's  walking  on  the 
Sea  of  Galilee  ?  He  sank  when  he  lost  faith, 
and  he  walked  on  the  water  when  he  had 
the  confidence  that  he  could  do  it."  He 
added  at  once,  **  I  do  not  believe  that  he 
walked  on  the  water,  but  the  story  is  good, 
isn't  it r' 


170  OUR  CHILDREN. 

As  to  credulity  in  the  common  walks  of 
life,  it  will  always  be  wise  to  distinguish  be- 
tween what  actually  is  true  and  what  a  per- 
son has  stated  to  be  true,  or  what  he  may 
believe  to  be  true.  The  distinction  is  sub- 
tle to  a  child's  mind  in  the  beginning,  but 
as  soon  as  he  understands  it,  he  will  utilize 
it  and  it  will  become  a  trait  of  character  that 
in  future  life  may  be  of  great  importance. 
He  will  learn  to  respect  the  right  of  others 
to  believe  as  they  please,  although  he  may 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  belief  itself 
has  no  foundation  and  is  unacceptable  to 
himself. 


MUTUAL  EDUCATION  OF  CHILDREN 

An  only  child  is  apt  to  be  spoiled,  and 
why  ?  Because  he  does  not  have  the  benefit 
of  the  mutual  education  that  brothers  and 
sisters  in  their  common  plays  as  well  as  in 
their  quarrels  naturally  bestow  upon  one  an- 
other. If  he  is  not  self-willed,  and  if  his 
peculiarities  do  not  manifest  themselves  in 
naughtiness,  he  will  as  a  rule  be  over-sensi- 
tive,—  which  in  later  life  may  prove  almost 
more  disastrous ;  for  he  will  be  liable  to  fret 
without  any  cause  when  others  unwillingly 
or  unwittingly  offend  him. 

Parents  that  have  several  children  should 
not  be  grieved  if  their  boys,  or  even  their 
girls,  sometimes  quarrel  among  themselves. 
There  are  few  brothers  who  would  not  now 
and  then  come  to  blows,  and  there  is  no 
harm  done  in  their  childish  quarrels,  so  long 
as  they  are  kept  within  proper  limits,  and 
parents  should  interfere  as  little  as  possible, 

171 


172  OUR  CHILDREN. 

except  to  counterbalance  the  greater  strength 
of  the  elder  ones,  to  prevent  their  having 
toys  which  might  turn  out  to  be  dangerous 
weapons,  and  in  general  to  see  to  it  that  no 
serious  harm  be  done.  There  is  no  better 
system  of  education  than  that  which  springs 
from  the  conflict  of  interests  that  originates 
within  the  sphere  of  the  children's  own  ex- 
periences. 

No  teachings  in  words  can  better  explain 
to  a  child  that  the  rights  of  others  must  be 
respected,  than  the  practical  experiences,  be 
they  ever  so  trivial,  which  give  meaning  to 
the  moral  exhortations  of  the  golden  rule  and 
of  practising  justice.  The  child  must  feel 
the  resistance  of  others,  in  order  to  learn 
that  there  are  limits  imposed  upon  us  in  so- 
ciety by  the  rights  of  our  fellows.  There- 
fore, if  parents  see  their  children  quarrelling 
they  should  not  be  anxious  about  them. 
Every  blow  that  one  little  brother  gives  or 
receives  is  a  moral  lesson  which  will  bear 
fruit  in  time. 

While  the  quarrels  of  children  are  not  to 
be  regarded  as  an  evil,  they  should  not  be 


MUTUAL  EDUCATION.  173 

fostered  or  produced.  They  should  only  be 
suffered,  and  parents  should  not  be  alarmed 
at  occasional  outbreaks  of  anger.  Far  from 
fostering  quarrels,  parents  should  see  to  it 
that  their  children  love  and  respect  one  an- 
other, and  it  is  easy  enough  for  them  to  do 
so.  They  should  never  in  the  presence  of 
one  child  speak  slightingly  of  their  other 
children,  but  always  in  respectful  and  lov- 
ing terms.  Every  word  of  contempt  or  ill- 
will,  even  of  deserved  reproach,  if  listened 
to  by  a  brother  or  sister,  sinks  much  more 
deeply  into  their  hearts  than  adult  people 
as  a  rule  are  apt  to  believe.  It  is  remem- 
bered, and  though  it  may  remain  unnoticed 
for  a  long  time,  it  will  finally  come  out  in 
one  shape  or  another  when  least  expected. 
It  may  be  true  that  most  of  the  grudges  and 
ill-will  that  brothers  sometimes  show  one 
another  are  due  to  the  carelessness  of  pa- 
rents who  reprove  the  little  fellows  in  the 
presence  of  their  brothers.  Parents,  there- 
fore, ought  to  make  it  a  rule  to  treat  child- 
ren throughout  in  the  presence  of  their 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  also  of  strangers, 


174  OUR  CHILDREN. 

not  very  differently  from  adult  people. 
Whatever  reproaches  have  to  be  made  ought 
to  be  done,  at  least  as  far  as  possible,  in  pri- 
vate, and  not  for  the  purpose  of  humiliating 
the  child. 

Children  are  apt  to  scold  one  another,  but 
their  words  have  not  the  same  weight  that 
those  of  parents  and  nurses  have.  Their 
revilings,  therefore,  cannot  do  the  same 
harm.  On  the  contrary,  if  parents  or 
nurses  show  their  disapproval  of  using 
names,  bickerings  in  the  nursery  will  be  re- 
membered as  deterring  examples. 

When  little  children  interfere  with  the 
plays  of  their  older  brothers  and  sisters, 
taking  away  their  toys  and  running  off  with 
them,  the  older  children  naturally  grow  in- 
dignant and  are  apt  at  once  to  beat  their 
weaker  playmates.  Then  of  course  it  is 
time  to  interfere  and  give  them  a  lesson  in 
patience.  And  the  best  method  to  keep 
older  cnildren  in  good  humor,  is  to  teach 
them  to  look  upon  their  smaller  companions 
with  the  eyes  of  grown  up  people.  When 
a  baby  of  two  years  runs  away  with  her  four 


MUTUAL  EDUCATION.  176 

year  old  sister's  doll,  it  is  better  to  let  her 
carry  off  her  spoils,  and  taking  the  elder 
child  in  your  arms,  to  say:  *'  Now  let  us 
watch  baby  and  see  what  she  is  doing  with 
dolly.  I'll  see  to  it  that  she  does  not  break 
it.  Now  look  how  she  carries  the  doll. 
Would  any  mamma  carry  her  baby  by  the 
leg?  She  does  not  yet  know  how  to  treat 
babies,  but  we  will  teach  her.  You  are  the 
elder,  you  must  tell  her  how." 

Possibly  for  the  first  time  children  may 
not  prove  amenable,  but  by  and  by  they  will 
learn  to  take  fatherly  or  motherly  interest 
in  the  queer  ways  of  their  younger  sisters 
and  brothers,  and  that  will  help  them  to  bear 
with  their  smaller  companions  if  they  un- 
duly interfere  with  the  rights  of  their  eld- 
ers and  provoke  their  anger. 

Of  course,  children  should  always  be 
watched,  especially  if  they  have  dangerous 
toys  in  their  hands,  such  as  iron  tools 
which  may  easily  become  weapons,  but  at 
the  same  time  they  ought  to  enjoy  their  lib- 
erty as  much  as  possible,  and  parents  should 
give  them  a  chance  to  educate  one  another 


176  OUR  CHILDREN. 

by  mutual  assistance  and  interest — as  well 
as  by  friction. 

I  remember  a  children's  party  given  in 
the  days  of  my  own  childhood  in  celebration 
of  the  birthday  of  one  of  my  little  friends. 
Our  host  had  received  a  game  called  *' Rey- 
nard the  Fox,"  and  he  had  invited  all  his 
little  comrades  to  play  the  new  game.  But 
he  had  cleverly  arranged  it  so  that  none  of 
his  guests  had  the  least  chance  of  winning, 
and  he  alone  bore  off  all  the  honors  and 
prizes  of  the  day.  He  was  an  only  child, 
and  that,,  too,  without  a  mother  who  might 
have  checked  his  ambitious  plans,  and  the 
outcome  of  the  children's  party  was  general 
dissatisfaction  and  finally  an  actual  rebel- 
lion against  the  host  who  tried  to  usurp  all 
the  power.  At  last  his  father  interfered  to 
restore  order,  and  settled  the  dispute  in  a 
manner  which  was  not  to  the  taste  of  the 
spoiled  child.  When  I  recounted  the  story 
at  home  and  informed  my  parents  about  the 
little  tricks  which  my  friend  had  used  to  in- 
sure his  victories,  they  pointed  out  to  me 
the  lesson  that  the  host  should  always  look 


MUTUAL  EDUCATION.  177 

to  the  interests  of  his  guests,  and  that  it  was 
a  matter  of  honor  on  his  part  to  let  them  be 
satisfied  and  go  home  with  the  pleasant 
feeling  of  having  been  well  entertained. 
The  vanity  of  gaining  all  the  honors  of  the 
day  spoiled  the  birthday  party  of  my  little 
friend  for  himself  and  others.  Had  he  been 
wise  enough  to  suffer  his  guests  to  gain  all 
the  prizes,  he  would  have  increased  their 
friendship  and  would  probably  have  en- 
joyed the  day  much  more  than  he  hoped  to 
do  and  might  have  done  by  winning  all  the 
prizes,  even  if  his  guests  had  not  demurred. 
I  do  not  remember  whether  as  the  host  of 
a  children's  party  I  was  better  than  my 
spoiled  friend,  but  I  am  sure  that  it  was  an 
experience  which  made  a  deep  impression 
on  my  mind,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  par- 
ents should  improve  all  the  opportunities 
they  have  of  guiding  children's  inclinations 
in  the  right  way  by  utilizing  their  own  ex- 
periences. 


FEAR  AND  CIRCUMSPECTION 

It  happens  that  children  sometimes  are 
frightened  by  phantoms  of  their  own  ima- 
gination, and  being  naturally  weak  and 
feeling  that  they  are  imable  to  protect  them- 
selves, may  at  the  idea  of  a  fancied  danger 
fall  into  hysterics.  What  is  to  be  done  if 
sucJi  a  state  supervenes,  or  if  symptoms  ap- 
pear which  indicate  its  approach, — a  state 
in  which  the  cluld  is  overpowered  by  all 
kinds  of  presentiments  and  would  be  imper- 
vious to  argument  ? 

The  best  plan  is  not  to  deny  at  once  the 
reality  of  the  imagiaation  which  is  the  im- 
mediate cause  of  the  sudden  fright  for  that 
fancied  fearful  object  is  a  reality  to  the 
child,  and  to  deny  it  would  be  to  cut  off  all 
means  of  curing  it.  The  best  way  is  to  con- 
sider it  temporarily  as  being  real,  or  at 
least  possible,  and  accept  the  state  of  things 
imagined.    Place  yourself  in  the  child's  po- 

178 


FEAR  AND  CIRCUMSPECTION.  179 

sition,  and  thence  start  for  further  opera- 
tions. That  is  the  fii'st  condition  which  in- 
sures the  child's  confidence,  so  that  it  will 
be  willing  to  follow  you,  and  you  will  then 
have  easy  play  to  examine  the  state  of  af- 
fairs, which  will  of  course  result  in  the  dis- 
covery that  there  was  no  cause  for  fear. 

A  few  examples  will  illustrate  the  case. 

A  little  girl  frequently  fancied  she  saw 
bears  and  tigers  whenever  she  happened  to 
awake  in  the  night.  Presumably  she 
dreamed  of  some  danger,  may  be  on  account 
of  having  eaten  too  much  for  supper  or  hav- 
ing eaten  the  wrong  kind  of  food.  At  any 
rate,  she  frequently  awoke  crying  in  the 
night,  and  in  her  fear  interpreted  the  dim 
outlines  of  a  dress  or  a  curtain  as  a  fearful 
beast  that  was  about  to  attack  her.  The 
best  thing  to  do  is  to  deal  tenderly  with  such 
fancies  and  remove  the  child  as  far  as  pos- 
sible from  the  object  that  has  caused  her 
excitement.  Then,  if  you  can  do  so  with- 
out disturbing  the  other  children,  light  the 
lamp  and  let  it  fall  full  on  the  thing  that 
has  given  rise  to  her  fear.    Be  slow,  and 


180  OUR  CHILDREN. 

express  your  opinion  first  as  a  kind  of  pre- 
liminary assumption  that  the  bear  may 
after  all  be  mamma's  skirt  or  the  curtain 
moving  in  the  draft;  and  when  this  com- 
forting probability  is  understood,  follow  up 
your  advantage  and  declare  it  to  be  a  good 
joke  that  a  harmless  piece  of  cloth  should 
look  like  a  fearful  animal.  Make  the  child 
smile  at  the  incongruity  of  her  fancy,  and 
her  laugh  will  cure  the  horror  of  the  dream 
and  dispel  the  nightmare  as  sunshine  dis- 
solves the  mist. 

One  day  I  walked  with  one  of  my  little 
boys  along  a  wooded  creek.  It  was  winter, 
and  the  trees  were  leafless  and  dry.  Now 
it  happened  that  a  trunk  of  a  tree  which 
had  lost  its  crown  and  was  encircled  by 
strong  vines,  looked,  from  a  certain  posi- 
tion, like  a  man,  or  rather  like  a  tramp  (for 
he  looked  very  ragged)  bending  over  a  bro- 
ken bicycle.  The  vines  were  so  queerly 
shaped  that  the  illusion  was  almost  perfect. 
My  little  boy  stood  aghast  for  a  moment. 
"There  is  a  bad  man,''  he  said,  "with  a  bi- 
cycle," and  he  pointed  to  the  strange  sight. 


FEAR  AND  CIRCUMSPECTION.  181 

I  could  not  help  at  once  tracing  the  figure 
to  which  he  referred,  but  I  knew  at  the  same 
time  that  it  was  a  tree  and  not  a  real  man, 
for  a  man  would  not  have  stood  so  motion- 
less as  did  that  weird,  ragged  looking  figure 
in  the  valley.  The  fear  of  the  little  boy  was 
great,  and  he  did  not  know  what  to  do, — 
whether  to  run  away  or  to  hide,  and  as  his 
imagination  was  easily  worked  up  I  felt 
that  there  was  danger  of  an  hysterical  out- 
break. The  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to 
remain  very  calm  myself.  Calmness  pro- 
duces calmness,  as  irritation  will  produce 
irritation.  Mental  states  by  imitation  are 
as  contagious  as  diseases.  Now  I  told  the 
little  fellow  to  stand  perfectly  still  and 
watch  that  tramp  in  the  valley.  At  the 
same  time  I  took  him  in  my  arms,  which  of 
course  alleviated  his  immediate  fears,  and 
while  he  watched  that  tramp-like  figure  I 
called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  stood 
perfectly  still  and  did  not  move,  except  as 
a  tree  will  in  a  gentle  breeze.  When  he  had 
grown  calmer,  I  proposed  to  walk  towards 
the  man  and  see  what  he  did.    But  the  lit- 


182  OUR  CHILDREN. 

tie  fellow  was  still  too  much  afraid  and 
said,  "Let  us  go  away  as  quickly  as  we 
can."  But  that  seemed  to  me  very  unde- 
sirable. Although  we  were  on  our  way 
home,  I  saw  clearly  that  I  had  first  to  dis- 
illusion him  as  to  the  cause  of  his  fear.  As 
he  would  not  walk  towards  the  strange  fig- 
ure directly,  I  thought  it  wisest  to  approach 
it  indirectly,  and  while  we  moved  some 
steps  to  the  side,  the  tree  ceased  to  look 
like  a  man  and  appeared  more  like  a  tree. 
At  the  same  time  the  figure  remained  mo- 
tionless as  before.  This  increased  the  cour- 
age of  the  boy  and  I  at  once  took  advantage 
of  it.  "I  don't  believe  it  is  a  man,"  said  I, 
"let  us  go  and  see."  He  still  objected.  I 
again  changed  our  position  to  a  place  which 
presented  another  view  of  that  queer  tree, 
and  the  confidence  of  the  boy  grew  more  and 
more.  The  hysterical  condition  disap- 
peared completely  and  there  remained  only 
■a  certain  awe  of  the  weird  appearance ;  but 
it  seemed  to  me  advisable  to  dispel  that  awe 
too  and  leave  no  trace  of  it.  Even  now  it 
seemed  to  me  advisable  not  to  approach  the 


FEAR  AND  CIRCUMSPECriON.  183 

tree  directly  and  quickly,  but  slowly,  as 
Indians  would  do  when  deer-stalking  or 
stealing  upon  an  enemy.  The  approach 
made  in  this  careful  way  increased  his  con- 
fidence, for  we  stopped  whenever  new 
doubts  arose  which  manifested  themselves 
in  renewed  hesitation;  and  at  last  I  said  *4t 
would  be  fun  if  the  wild  man  would  turn 
out  to  be  merely  a  tree  stump.  Really,  I 
believe  it  is  only  a  tree.  "What  do  you 
think?''  And  he  thought  that  it  was  really 
a  tree  and  his  fright  changed  slowly  into 
fear,  then  into  awe,  then  into  circumspec- 
tion, then  into  a  strong  suspicion  of  the 
causelessness  of  his  fear,  and  at  last  into 
good  humor  at  the  situation.  When  we 
came  to  the  place  and  stood  before  the  leaf- 
less tree,  which  had  no  longer  any  resem- 
blance to  a  man  or  a  bicycle,  we  had  a  hearty 
laugh  and  I  did  not  fail  to  impress  on  the 
boy  the  ridiculousness  of  the  situation. 
Lest  the  experience  should  vanish  from  his 
memory,  I  sometimes  reminded  him  of  the 
incident,  recommending  him  in  all  similar 
cases  first  to  look  closely  at  the  frightful 


184  OUR  CHILDREN. 

apparition.  Perhaps  then  it  will  dissolve 
into  nothing,  just  as  an  imagined  highway- 
man changed  into  a  rotten  stiunp. 

Another  instance  of  fear  that  I  found 
necessary  to  allay  in  the  same  little  boy, 
happened  on  the  farm  to  which  we  were  ac- 
customed to  go.  When  he  first  encountered 
a  pig,  he  was  so  frightened  at  its  grunt  that 
he  could  not  be  induced  to  walk  into  the 
yards  in  which  the  swine  were  kept  with 
the  cows  and  sheep.  As  it  did  not  seem  to 
me  advisable  to  yield  to  his  fear,  I  carried 
him  to  the  fence  on  my  arm,  where  he  felt 
safe,  and  explained  to  him  that  pigs  are 
very  much  afraid  of  men  and  even  of  little 
boys  if  they  only  courageously  hunted  them. 
So  when  a  pig  approached  the  fence  I  drove 
it  away,  which  gave  the  little  boy  a  great 
deal  of  pleasui'e  to  see  his  old  enemy  put  to 
flight.  I  at  once  made  use  of  his  elated 
state  of  mind  and  pursued  the  pig.  When 
he  saw  that  the  pigs  were  really  cowards,  I 
put  him  on  the  ground  and  gave  him  a  stick 
and  let  him  give  chase  himself.  First  he 
would  not  go  to  the  ground ;  but  having  re- 


FEAR  AND  CIRCUMSPECTION.  185 

peatedly  witnessed  the  wild  flight  of  chased 
pigs,  he  ventured  the  feat,  stick  in  hand, 
still  clinging,  however,  to  his  papa's  hand. 
Of  course,  I  took  care  that  the  first  pigs  he 
met  with  were  not  too  large  and  that  they 
would  quickly  retire  at  our  approach.  The 
little  boy's  courage  grew  with  his  success, 
and  after  a  few  repeated  pig  hunts  he  lost 
all  the  fear  he  had  entertained,  and  I  now 
found  it  necessary  to  give  the  boys,  him  as 
well  as  his  little  brother,  a  warning  not  to 
be  too  bold  with  pigs  when  they  were  alone, 
because  the  big  ones  might  not  be  quite  so 
cowardly  as  they  thought,  and  might  turn 
out  to  be  ugly. 

Make  it  a  rule  never  to  excite  fear  in 
children,  and  never  show  fear  yourself  in 
their  presence.  On  the  contrary,  set  chil- 
di'en  an  example  of  calm  behavior  in  in- 
stances where  either  you  yourself  become 
involved  in  an  actually  perilous  situation  or 
where  the  child's  imagination  sees  a  mere 
show  of  danger. 

Unfortunately  most  of  the  help  employed 
in  a  house,  especially  the  servants  in  the 


186  OUR  CHILDREN. 

kitchen,  show  an  extraordinary  fear  of 
mice,  which  is  transferred  to  the  children. 
If  a  child  observes  but  once  a  scene  of  ex- 
citement, because  a  little  mouse  happens  to 
be  heard,  parents  will  have  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  to  eradicate  the  evil  effect.  This 
impression  will  probably  last  forever,  and 
can  only  be  counteracted  by  carefully  super- 
adding the  ridiculousness  of  such  fear. 

The  elimination  of  fear  in  education 
should  not,  however,  promote  audacity  and 
f  oolhardiness ;  on  the  contrary  we  must  be- 
gin at  an  early  age  to  caution  children  and 
make  them  look  out  for  and  anticipate  dan- 
gers. 

When  taking  a  walk  with  children,  it  is 
advisable  to  think  aloud,  and  to  tell  them 
why  we  walk  here  and  there,  why  we  look 
out  when  crossing  the  tracks,  or  crossing 
streets;  and  to  point  out  to  them  the  dan- 
gers that  must  be  avoided.  Circumspection 
must  be  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas  in  a 
child's  mind,  especially  in  our  days  when 
civilization  begins  to  grow  more  and  more 
complex. 


FEAR  AND  CIRCUMSPECTION.  187 

If  you  have  electric  wires  in  the  house, 
either  for  lighting  or  for  bells,  it  is  advisa- 
ble to  improve  the  occasion  whenever  a  re- 
pair is  made,  or  whenever  an  opportunity 
may  offer  itself,  to  show  to  children  the 
sparks  that  appear  when  wires  touch.  If 
the  current  is  too  weak  to  do  any  harm,  it 
is  even  advisable  to  let  children  touch  wires 
and  receive  a  shock.  At  any  rate,  they 
ought  to  be  informed  of  the  dangers  to 
which  they  expose  themselves  in  touching 
wires.  They  ought  to  know  that  as  the 
electricity  in  the  wires  of  a  bell  are  weak,  so 
the  electricity  in  the  wires  of  a  street  rail- 
way are  very  powerful  and  would,  if 
touched,  unfailingly  kill  a  man.  It  is  not 
exactly  necessary  to  tell  children  the  terri- 
ble accidents  that  frequently  happen,  but 
it  is  necessary  to  give  them  full  information 
about  what  might  happen.  When  they 
grow  older,  attaining  an  age  at  which  the 
imagination  is  no  longer  apt  to  be  over- 
strung, they  should  also  be  told  of  the  ac- 
cidents and  how  they  happen,  so  that  they 
will  learn  to  avoid  them. 


188  OUR  CHILDREN. 

It  will  be  useful  under  all  circumstances 
to  impress  short  rules  upon  the  miads  of 
the  children,  never  to  touch  a  wire  that 
might  happen  to  dangle  from  a  pole,  and 
never  to  step  on  a  wire  that  might  touch 
the  ground,  and  the  connection  of  which 
cannot  be  traced.  It  might  be  harmless, 
but  it  might  be  a  live  wire. 

The  same  rules,  mutatis  mutandis,  apply 
to  innumerable  other  situations.  If  par- 
ents visit  factories  or  machine  shops  with 
their  children,  as  in  my  opinion  they  ought 
to  do  from  time  to  time,  they  should  give 
due  warning  not  to  touch  any  running  ma- 
chinery and  especially  to  be  on  the  lookout 
with  regard  to  belts.  Before  they  approach 
the  machinery  they  should  watch  it  for  a 
moment  so  as  to  know  how  far  its  sphere  of 
danger  reaches.  In  smithies  and  near  fire- 
places of  any  kind,  children  must  be  taught 
never  to  step  on  iron,  because  even  the 
dark-looking  irons  may  still  be  hot,  and  it 
will  be  instructive  to  touch  with  a  piece  of 
wood  some  hot  iron  which,  having  lost  its 
reddish  blaze,  appears  to  the  iminitiated  eye 


FEAR  AND  CIRCUMSPECTION.  189 

quite  harmless.  The  wood  will  quickly 
catch  fire,  and  the  child  should  learn  that 
if  it  stepped  on  that  same  iron  the  heat 
would  soon  bum  through  the  shoe  into  the 
flesh,  and  perhaps  to  the  bone. 

Of  course,  these  little  lessons  in  caution 
should  not  be  given  so  as  to  make  the  chil- 
dren timid ;  and,  as  a  rule,  it  will  be  time  to 
devote  special  attention  to  them  as  soon  as 
the  child  has  lost  its  natural  fear.  First 
teach  children  courage,  then  show  them  the 
need  of  circumspection. 


SANTA  CLAUS 

There  seems  to  be  a  period  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  child  in  which  it  is  given  to  be- 
lieving in  the  personification  of  ideas.  I 
know  a  little  boy  to  whom  Santa  Claus, 
during  a  certain  period  of  his  life,  was,  and 
remained,  in  spite  of  all  explanations,  a 
real  person  whom  he  knew  as  well  as  his 
papa  and  his  mamma.  I  tried  to  explain 
to  him  the  meaning  of  Santa  Claus.  I 
took  occasion  to  tell  him  that  all  the  various 
Christmas  presents  were  given  him  by  his 
parents,  grandparents,  uncles,  aunts,  and 
friends,  and  that  they  had  to  buy  them  in 
the  stores.  In  this  connection  I  saw  fit  to 
mention  that  the  idea  of  Santa  Claus  was 
simply  an  allegorical  expression  of  the  love 
of  parents  and  grandparents  who  wished  to 
give  Christmas  joy  to  good  little  children. 

The  Christmas  gifts  are  here;  they  are 
the  realities  which  the  children  see,  and  on 

190 


SANTA  CLAUS.  191 

these  concrete  things  hangs  their  conviction 
of  the  reality  of  Santa  Claus. 

Children  are  right  from  their  standpoint, 
which  views  the  reality  back  of  an  abstrac- 
tion in  the  allegory  of  personification. 

When  I  explained  to  the  little  fellow 
that  Santa  Clans  was  such  love  of  par- 
ents and  others  as  prompts  them  to  give  to 
children  Christmas  presents,  the  child  un- 
derstood every  word,  and  even  appreciated 
the  fact  that  every  present  must  be  paid  for 
by  somebody.  Nevertheless,  Santa  Claus 
remained  a  real  figure  in  his  imagination 
and  continued  to  play  a  most  important  part 
not  only  in  his  games,  but  also  generally  in 
his  whole  world-conception,  so  much  so  that 
his  highest  ambition  was  to  become  Santa 
Claus  himself  as  soon  as  he  grew  up. 

A  little  incident  will  serve  as  an  instance 
of  how  mature  thoughts  for  a  long  time  lie 
side  by  side  with  childlike  conceptions. 
Once  when  the  little  boy  asked  me  about  de- 
tails of  Santa  Clauses  habitation  and  ma- 
chine shops,  I  again  gave  him  the  explana- 
tion of  Santa  Clauses  ideal  nature,  where- 


192  OUR  CHILDREN. 

upon  the  child  said:  *'Yes,  I  know  that 
Santa  Claus  means  love  of  papas  and 
mammas  for  their  children,  but  I  do  not 
mean  that  kind  of  Santa  Claus ;  I  now  mean 
the  real  Santa  Claus.'* 

The  reply  of  the  little  fellow  reminded 
me  of  the  views  of  many  adult  children  who 
do  not  as  yet  understand  that  all  abstrac- 
tions are  real.  Thus  they  are  still  in  need 
of  the  method  of  personification  to  make 
them  appear  real  to  their  mind. 

There  is  among  a  certain  class  of  educa- 
tors the  notion  prevalent  that  we  ought  to 
abolish  in  child  education  all  the  fairy  tales 
and  with  them  the  dear  old  figure  of  Santa 
Claus.  But  I  have  observed  that  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  traditional  characters  which  by 
the  experience  of  centui'ies  have  become 
typical  representations  of  certain  spiritual 
realities  of  life,  children  are  apt  to  form 
their  own  personifications,  which  of  course 
will  be  cruder,  less  poetical,  and  less  defined 
than  the  old  ones.  While  I  gladly  allow 
that  the  rationalizing  influence  should 
watch  over  the  development  of  a  child  by 


SANTA  CLAUS.  193 

constantly  keeping  before  his  mind  rational 
explanations  of  the  various  fairy  tale  fig- 
ures, I  should  not  regard  it  as  advisable  to 
crush  or  cripple  the  child's  imagination. 
We  need  not  fear  that  it  will  not  be  cor- 
rected in  time.  I  have  the  confidence  that 
a  child  will  naturally  overcome  the  child- 
ishness of  fairy-tale  personifications,  and 
we  need  not  shock  his  mind  by  suddenly  dis- 
illusioning him.  The  child  will  overcome 
in  later  years  the  superstition  of  a  literal 
acceptance  of  fairy  tales  and  will  preserve 
the  poetry  of  the  story. 

It  is  neither  necessary  nor  advisable  to 
pull  out  the  first  teeth  because  they  have  no 
roots  and  will  not  endure.  According  to 
the  laws  of  nature  the  development  of  the 
second  teeth  begins  before  the  first  teeth 
fall  out.  In  the  realm  of  the  spiritual  de- 
velopment, therefore,  we  ought  not  to  be 
zealotical  iconoclasts;  we  need  not  pull  out 
and  violently  remove  that  which  is  imma- 
ture and  temporary,  but  care  ought  to  be 
taken  that  the  germs  of  a  higher  concep- 
tion be  planted  and  that  at  the  disappear- 


194  OUR  CHILDREN. 

ance  of  the  old  the  new  and  more  purified 
thought  be  ready  to  take  its  place. 

The  little  boy  of  whom  I  speak  under- 
stood only  in  part  what  I  told  him  about 
Santa  Claus.  He  believed  that  he  under- 
stood it  all.  He  acquired  an  idea  that  pa- 
rental love,  and  children's  joys,  and  the 
family  reunion  at  the  Christmas  festival 
were  great  realities  in  life,  but  he  did  not 
see  that  in  their  presence  the  figure  of  what 
he  called  the  real  Santa  Claus  as  a  bodily 
being  living  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
traveling  over  the  country  in  his  reindeer 
sleigh  had  become  redundant — ^without  how- 
ever having  lost  its  significance. 

Is  not  the  same  true  of  mankind  as  a 
whole?  The  evolution  of  human  civiliza- 
tion has  also  its  fairy-tale  period,  and  we 
are  only  now  emerging  from  its  fanciful 
visions.  There  are  still  many  among  us 
who  believe  that  unless  the  letter  of  a  myth 
be  true  there  can  be  neither  beauty  nor 
truth  in  religion.  They  think,  like  genuine 
adult  children,  that  if  Santa  Claus  were  not 
a  real  definite  individual  there  could  be  no 


SANTA  CLAUS.  195 

Christmas  presents  nor  any  true  Christmas 
joy.  Their  belief  in  a  God  and  Heaven  is 
more  like  the  children's  belief  in  Santa 
Claus  than  a  genuine  faith  in  the  grand 
realities  that  are  symbolized  in  these  names. 
Heaven  and  hell  to  many  are  not  spiritual, 
but  material;  they  are  conceived,  not  as 
conditions,  but  as  places. 

Thinking  men  among  the  church  people 
of  the  old  stamp  are  often  struck  with  the 
truth  that  God  and  immortality  are  part 
and  parcel  of  our  life  and  that  they  are 
traceable  everywhere  in  reality  itself.  But 
then,  like  the  little  boy  of  whom  I  spoke 
before,  they  understand  and  accept  the  new 
light,  and  yet  stick  at  the  same  time  to  the 
materialistic  view.  All  the  Christmas 
presents  are  due  to  the  love  of  parents  and 
friends,  yet  in  addition  to  it  there  is  an  in- 
dividual person  who  provides  for  them,  and 
he  is  the  real  Santa  Claus.  They  grant 
that  God  is  the  eternal  in  the  transient ;  the 
immutable  law  in  the  changes  of  the  phe- 
nomenal world;  yet  in  addition  claim  that 
he  may  be  an  individual  being. 


196  UUR  CHILDREN. 

The  conception  of  God  is  ultimately 
based  on  fact,  but  the  notion  that  God  is  an 
individual  being  is  an  illusion ;  and  if  think- 
ing people  still  cling  to  this  error,  it  is  as  if  a 
naturalist,  traveling  in  the  desert,  explained 
to  his  fellow  travelers  the  causes  of  a  mir- 
age, yet  they,  having  understood  the  whole 
explanation,  would  add:  **That  may  all  be 
very  true ;  the  mirage  as  we  see  it  is  due  to 
all  these  causes  which  we  can  plainly  trace 
in  diagrams  and  calculate  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  refraction  of  light  in  the  differ- 
ent strata  of  the  heated  air,  but  that  does 
not  disprove  the  theory  that  there  might  be 
some  real  haven  of  peace,  full  of  beauty  and 
bliss,  in  that  very  same  place  where  the  mir- 
age appears.  The  cosmic  order  may  be  un- 
create  and  the  condition  of  the  wonderful 
harmony  of  the  world,  it  may  be  God:  yet 
this  God  might  at  the  same  time  be  a  con- 
crete being  and  as  much  an  individual 
ego-consciousness  as  we  are.  Further, 
heaven  and  hell  may  be  conditions  of  the 
soul,  but  there  may  be  also  a  heaven  that  is 
as  real  and  concretely  material  a  place  as 


SANTA  CLAUS.  197 

this  earth  is;"  and  then  they  believe  that 
the  spiritual  reality  of  heaven  and  hell,  as 
it  exists  in  us,  would  be  of  no  avail  unless 
there  were  some  material  reality  in  addi- 
tion, imless  they  were  geographical  locali- 
ties on  our  own  planet  or  somewhere  else  in 
space.  Such  people  have  not  yet  outgrown 
the  mythological  phase  of  their  develop- 
ment, and,  after  a  careful  consideration  of 
their  state  of  mind,  I  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  they  are  still  in  need  of  a  sen- 
sual conception  of  religious  truths,  and,  as 
a  rule,  if  they  lost  the  belief  in  the  letter, 
they  would  also  lose  the  belief  in  the  spirit, 
for  their  comprehension  of  things  spiritual 
is  as  yet  undeveloped. 

The  most  important  religious  idea  is  the 
God-idea,  and  it  is  natural  that  this  deep 
and  intricate  conception  should  cause  great 
difficulties  to  the  educator. 

The  question  arises.  Would  it  be  right  to 
teach  the  child  those  childlike  conceptions 
of  the  Deity  which  we  ourselves  no  longer 
believe ;  or  shall  we,  with  agnostics,  tell  them 
we  do  not  know  whether  God  exists  or  not ; 


198  OUR  CHILDREN. 

or,  finally,  shall  we  with  freethinkers  ridi- 
cule the  belief  as  unworthy  of  credence  ? 

Perhaps-  all  these  methods  are  somewhat 
faulty,  and  the  best  principle  would  be  to 
let  the  children  watch  the  performance  of 
religious  worship  of  various  denominations, 
and  when  they  ask  about  the  significance  of 
prayer,  sermons,  hymn-singing,  thanksgiv- 
ings, and  benedictions,  give  them  at  first  an 
explanation  of  the  ideas  which  induce  some 
people  to  go  through  these  ceremonies  and 
sometimes  through  strange  rituals.  If  the 
children's  interest  in  religious  problems  is 
aroused,  tell  them  of  other  beliefs,  includ- 
ing idolatrous  practices  and  superstitions, 
which  can  easily  be  illustrated  by  pictures. 
But  while  imparting  your  information,  be 
always  careful  not  to  present  your  own 
views  ready  made,  but  let  the  children  work 
out  the  question  for  themselves.  Give  them 
such  help  as  will  render  the  solution  of  the 
various  problems  easier  to  them,  but  see  to 
it  that  they  do  the  thinking  themselves. 

The  question  will  soon  be  asked,  **Does 
God  exist?'*  and  of  course  the  children's 


SANTA  CLAUS.  199 

God  is  an  invisible  individual  who  hovers  in 
the  air  as  he  is  pictured  in  Bible  illustra- 
tions. A  God  such  as  the  children  believe 
in,  of  course,  does  not  exist,  but  for  that  rea- 
son it  would  be  very  wrong  to  tell  the  child, 
"No,  God  does  not  exist ;'^  for  while  the 
child's  idea  of  God  is  wrong,  there  are  no- 
tions connected  with  it  which  are  true.  The 
child  asks  also  whether  or  not  there  is  an  in- 
visible presence  that  watches  him,  whether 
or  not  his  acts  when  he  is  alone  remain  con- 
cealed from  the  world,  and  here  the  difficulty 
appears  to  lay  the  foundation  for  a  higher 
conception  of  God  than  is  the  popular  view 
of  the  traditional  personification. 

Meet  the  question,  "Does  God  exist?'*  by 
the  counter  question,  "What  do  you  under- 
stand by  God?''  and  thus  lead  the  child  to  a 
description  of  its  childlike  views,  which  will 
give  you  a  chance  to  point  out  the  true  and 
to  discard  the  false. 

A  little  chap  of  scarcely  three  years  was 
once  quite  shocked  when  he  heard  that  the 
air  above  us  grew  thinner  and  thinner  and 
that  at  last  there  was  no  air  left.    No  one 


200  OUR  CHILDREN. 

can  breathe  there  and  we  should,  if  carried 
up,  immediately  die.  The  source  of  his 
anxiety  became  apparent  when  with  sup- 
pressed tears  he  exclaimed  in  a  state  of  ten- 
sion, **But,  then  the  Good  Lord  must  die?" 
*'No,  my  boy,"  I  said,  *'the  Good  Lord  can- 
not die ;  He  has  not  a  body  as  we  have ;  He 
has  no  lungs ;  He  need  not  breathe  in  order 
to  exist.  His  existence  does  not  depend  on 
a  body  like  ours.  He  is  not  an  individual 
as  you  are  and  as  I  am.  If  He  were.  He 
would  not  be  God.  He  is  not  a  man.  He  is 
God."  The  child  felt  greatly  relieved  and 
it  helped  him  to  come  a  step  nearer  to  the 
truth. 

Such  occasional  explanations  should  as  a 
rule  come  only  in  response  to  questions,  for 
then,  and  then  alone,  will  they  be  appreci- 
ated. Eeligious  instruction  should  consist 
mainly  in  setting  the  child's  mind  to  think- 
ing and  solving  the  problems  that  the  child 
perceives  himself.  He  will  ask,  *  *  What  does 
God  want  us  to  do?"  which  means  for  adult 
people,  **What  significance  does  the  God- 
idea  possess  in  human  life  ? ' '    And  when  the 


SANTA  CLAUS.  201 

child  answers  this  question  in  the  child's 
language,  that  "God  wants  us  to  be  good,'' 
he  will  naturally  come  to  the  definition  that 
"God  is  all  that  prompts  to  goodness." 

We  can  fairly  abstain  here  from  entering 
into  further  details  because  the  individu- 
ality of  the  child  will  require  much  individu- 
alizing on  this  most  important  subject.  All 
I  would  claim,  however,  is  this,  that  a  child 
— especially  if  his  other  education  has  been 
in  lines  analogous  to  those  pointed  out  here 
— can  be  made  to  see  (1)  that  God  is  present 
in  everything  that  is  good,  (2)  that  God  is 
the  principle  of  goodness,  (3)  that  this  God 
is  not  an  individual  being  but  an  eternal  and 
ubiquitous  presence;  (4)  that  this  God  is 
everywhere,  and  not  nowhere,  that  although 
He  is  not  a  material  body.  He  is  a  most  effec- 
tive reality  and  not  a  nonentity ;  that  He  is 
not  only  good,  but  that  His  Goodness  in- 
cludes that  He  is  also  formidable,  as  His 
goodness  implies  that  badness  leads  to  bad- 
ness and  the  sequence  of  sin  is  sin's  curse. 
And  lastly,  that,  be  we  ever  so  much  alone, 
we  yet  always  remain  in  the  presence  of 


202  OUR  CHILDREN. 

God.  All  our  actions  persist  in  their  effects, 
and  we  can  nowhere  and  under  no  circum- 
stances escape  the  results  of  our  acts. 

Children  can  be  led  up  to  these  results  and 
easily  made  to  understand  them  without  our 
entering  into  deep  philosophical  discussions. 
At  the  same  time  the  corollaries  of  these 
views  can  be  pointed  out.  Children  that 
grow  up  under  these  impressions  will  remain 
reverent  without  being  superstitious.  They 
will  naturally  understand  the  right  use  of 
prayer.  They  will  not  pray  for  a  change  of 
weather,  but  for  strength  of  heart;  and  al- 
though they  may  have  been  brought  up  to 
say  grace  before  dinner,  they  will  not  pray 
with  any  expectation  of  changing  the  will  of 
God.  Their  prayer  will  be  a  realization  of 
self-control;  it  will  be  self-criticism  exer- 
cised by  suffering  their  acts  to  pass  by  in  the 
review  of  a  searching  self-examination  and 
will  result  in  self-discipline,  rendering  them 
determined  to  pursue  the  right  way  of  ac- 
tion. 

It  will  be  advisable  on  general  principles 
to  let  children  know  at  an  early  age  that,  as 


SANTA  CLAUS.  203 

there  are  different  nations,  so  there  are  dif- 
ferent religions;  and  we  must  always  be 
careful  not  to  misrepresent  others.  We 
may  say  why  we  do  not  share  other  people's 
views,  but  do  not  pronounce  any  condemna- 
tion without  good  and  sufficient  reasons.  A 
comparison  between  religions  will  be  very 
serviceable  in  educating  the  child's  inde- 
pendent judgment. 

The  right  God-conception  renders  us  more 
efficient  in  life ;  it  makes  us  independent  and 
energetic.  The  wrong  God-conception  makes 
us  superstitious  and  dependent.  It  is  said 
that  during  the  naval  engagement  of  the 
Chinese-Japanese  war  the  commander  of 
one  of  the  great  Chinese  vessels  went  down 
into  his  cabin  to  pray  for  help  to  his  Joss, 
when  he  ought  to  have  been  on  the  captain's 
bridge  looking  out  for  the  enemy  and  com- 
manding his  men.  There  is  no  use  in  pray- 
ing when  we  ought  to  act.  He  who  believes 
that  prayer  can  work  miracles,  and  trusts 
that  God  will  at  his  special  request  change 
the  course  of  nature,  deserves  to  go  to  the 
wall;  for  the  highest  prayer,  nay,  the  only 


204  OUR  CHILDREN. 

true  prayer,  is  to  attend  to  the  right  thing  at 
the  right  time — in  a  word,  to  do  one's  duty. 
You  need  not  make  atheists  of  your  chil- 
dren nor  creed-duped  believers.  Teach  them 
the  facts  of  life,  point  out  the  path  of  right 
conduct ;  make  them  critical  and  thoughtful 
without  treating  the  errors  of  others  in  a 
cynical  spirit,  and  you  can  safely  leave  the 
rest  of  their  religious  development  to  their 
own  judgment. 


INDEX. 


Abstractions  are  real,  192. 
^sop's  Fables,  30. 
Alienists  divert,  80. 
Allowance  in  money,  35,  38. 
Altruism  and  egotism,    19. 
Anger  of  parents,   74-75- 
Animals,   Need  of  education  in 

higher,  3 ;  Sympathy  with,  46  flf. 
Antagonize,   Do  not,  79. 
Anxiety  makes  anxious,  62. 
Arithmetic,  how  to  be  taught,  139. 
Atlantic  Monthly,  The,  151  n. 
Audacity  and  fear,   186. 
Augustine,  St.,   160  fl. 

Barbarism  of  hunting,  48. 

Bible,    Rationalistic   treatment    of, 

a  mistake,  164. 
Blindness,  Frequent  cause  of,  86. 
Bluntness  and  truth,  28. 
Buckley,  Arabella  B.,  125. 
Buddha,  67,  68. 
Burns,  Robert,  37  S. 

Capital  punishment,  a  necessity, 
70. 

Card-tricks,    109. 

Carlyle,  33. 

Carus,  Primer  of  Philosophy,  i34n. 

Caution,  Lessons  in,   189. 

Cheating  and  being  cheated,  66. 

Child  has  a  right  to  be  active,  77. 

Children    and    their    smaller    com- 
panions,  174  ff.;  imitative,  6. 

Christ,  68. 

Circumspection,   186;  and  fear, 
178  ff. 

Classical  music,  144. 


Cleaning  teeth,  83. 

Clear  and  subconscious;  terms  do 
not  exclude  each  other,  107. 

Coaxing,   Victims  of,   90  S. 

Counting  in  other  tongues,   129. 

Credulity,  170. 

Criterion  of  culture.  Truth,  2. 

Critical  attitude,  165;  sense.  De- 
velop the,  167. 

Culture,  Truth  criterion  of,  2. 

Dead  languages,  130. 
Demons  to  be  cast  out,   59. 
Dentist,   Treatment  by  the,  85-86. 
Development,    Onesidedness    of, 

168. 
Discretion,  28. 

Dispositions,   Child  inherits,  6. 
Doing,  Learn  by,   134. 
Dominion,  by  naming  things,  94. 
Don't  say  don't,   50  ff. 
Duties  of  parenthood,   17. 

Eden,  Garden  of,  53. 

Education,  Need  of,  in  higher  ani" 

mals,  3;  of  parents,   13. 
Egotism  and  altruism,   19. 
Esprit  de  corps,  24,  27. 
Evil  consequences,  Teach  by,  55. 
Exorcism,   Modernized,   61. 
Experiments  in  physics,  120  ff. 

Facts  not  fancy,  125  ff. 

Fairy-tale  period  of  mankind,   194. 

Fairy-tales,    Do    not    banish,    162; 

need    not    be    abolished,    192  f.; 

Wrong  use  of,  125  ff. 


206 


OUR  CHILDREN. 


Family  relation,  trinitarian,   i6. 

Faust,  1 8. 

Fear,  and  audacity,  i86;  and  cir- 
cumspection, 178  if;  Instance  of, 
180  ff.;  Never  excite,  185;  of 
mice,  186. 

First,  impressions  important,  10; 
mistake,   104;  steps,  4,  6  ff. 

Foreign  languages,  128  ff. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  St.,  i. 

Frederick  the  Great,  49. 

Gambler's  trick,  43. 

Games  should  not  be  waste  of 
time,   148. 

Genius,  Condition  of,  156;  no  mys- 
tery,  154;  Playful  ease  of,  155. 

God,  and  Santa  Claus,  195  ff. ; 
Definition  of,  201;  has  not  a 
body,  200;  What  to  teach  the 
child  about,  197  ff. 

God-conception,  renders  us  more 
efficient.  The  right,  203;  most 
important,   197. 

Goethe,   5,   18. 

Golden  rule,  172. 

Goose  fisherman.  The,  46. 

Grammar,   129. 

Higher    animals.    Need    of   cduca 

tion  in,  3. 
Holder,  Fred.,  46. 
Home-work,  No  use  in,  132. 
Homer,   163. 
Hosts,  Children  as,  176. 
Hunting,  Barbarism  of,  48. 
Hysterics,  178. 

Ideal,    only    imperfectly    realized, 

9-10. 
Imagination  and  truth,  22. 
Individuals  and  the  race,   18. 
Infant,  the  Saviour,   15. 
Infection,   Dangers  of,  86. 
Insane    asylum.    Incident    in    an, 

80-81. 
Instruction   by   showing,    120. 
Instructive  features  of  toys,   124. 


Kindergarten,  150;  not  for  play, 
151;  A  vicious  habit  of,  125. 

Krause,  Ernst  (Carus  Sterne),  13, 
14,   16. 

La  Fontaine,  65. 
Latin,  Teaching  of,  130. 
Lavergne,  Georges,  4. 
Legends  are  realities,  163. 
Liberty,    and   responsibility,    75; 
Children  to  be  reared  in,  93. 
Lullaby  songs,   100. 
Luther,  160  ff. 

Mariolatry,  15. 

Mathematical  instruction,   134  ff. 

Matthews,  William,  on  money,  36. 

Mephistopheles,  18  f. 

Mice,  fear  of,  186. 

Money,  34  ff.;  William  Matthews 
on,  36;  Wrong  use  of,  36-37. 

Monist,  The,  123  n. 

Mozart,  8. 

Multiplication  made  easy,  107  f. 

Music,  in  education,  140  ff.;  pre- 
vents onesidedness,   142. 

Mutuality,  19-21. 

Naming,    Significance    of,    94    ff.; 
the  products  of  operations,   135. 
Night-mare,   179. 
Numerals  and  things,  106. 
Nurses  to  be  chosen  with  care,  ii. 

Onesidedness,  Music   prevents,  142; 

of  development,   168. 
Only  child,    176;   often  spoiled, 

172. 
Ophites,  The,  53. 

Pain  expelled,  61-62. 

Parenthood,   13  ff. ;   Duties  of,   17. 

Parents,  Anger  of,  74-75;  Educa- 
tion of,   13. 

Penitentiaries,  breeding-places  of 
crime,  71. 

Personification  of  actual  things, 
127;  of  ideas,   190. 


INDEX. 


207 


Peter,  St.,  walking  on  the  water, 
169. 

Photograph,   Introduction  of,  i4sf. 

Physics,  Experiments  in,  120  £f. 

Piano,  Knowledge  of,  indispen- 
sable, 143. 

Piano-playing   instrument,    144. 

Playful  instruction,   147  ff. 

Plays  to  be  utilized,   148. 

Poetry  and  romanticism,    166. 

Prayer,   self-control,   202;  True, 
204  f. 

Prisons,  71. 

Punish,  Do  not,  67  S. 

Punishment,  Capital,  a  necessity, 
70;  consequences  of  a  wrong 
act,  73;  in  anger,  74. 

Quarrels  not  an  evil,  172-174. 

Race,  Individuals  and  the,  18. 
Rational  and  rationalistic,  160.  169. 
Rationalism,  in  the   nursery,  160  ff ; 

onesided,   161. 
Rationalistic  and  rational,  160,169. 
Razor- Seller,  The,  41. 
Real  and  true,   166. 
Reason  not  anti-religious,   164. 
Reil,  Island  of,  7. 
Religions,    Comparison   between, 

203;  Nature  of,   161. 
Reproach  in  private,  174. 
Responsibility  and  liberty,  75. 
Retaliation  not  a  cure,  68  f. 
Reverent  not  superstitious,  202. 
Rolling-mill,  95. 
Romanticism  and  poetry,    166. 

Sanitary   attention  to   children, 

82  ff. 
Santa  Gaus,    190   ff.;  and  God, 

195  fif. 


Scolding  makes  a  scold,  57;  Tbere 

should  be  no,  63. 
Scripture,  123  n. 
Self-control,  prayer,   202;  ultimate 

aim,  93. 
Self-criticism,  29;  Stimulate,  64  ff. 
Shakespeare,  29. 
Singing,    142   f. 
Slightingly  of  other  children,  Do 

not  speak,   173. 
Spray,  Use  of  the,  88. 
Standard  of  civilization,  i. 
Starvation  cure,  91. 
Sterne,  Cams,  pseud.  See  Krause, 

£mst. 
Stomach  has  a  memory,  92. 
Subconscious  and  clear;  terms  do 

not  exclude  each  other,   107. 
Suppress,  Do  not,  76. 
Sweets,  Do  not  forbid,  92. 
Sympathy  with  animals,  46  ff. 

Teeth,  Allegory  of,   193  ff;  Gean- 
ing,  83. 

Tesla,  Nicola,  157. 

Things  and  numerals,   106. 

Throat,  Diseases  of  the,  86-87. 

Thunderstorms,   loi. 

Toys,    Instructive    features   of, 
124  ff. 

Trick,  Gambler's,   43. 

Trinitarian,  Family  relation,   16. 

True  and  real,  166. 

Truth,    and    imagination,    22;    cri- 
terion of  culture,  2. 

Untruths  not  always  lies,  23. 

Vanity,  177;  dangerous,  64. 
Violin,  educational,   143. 

Zeal,  Need  of,  149. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 
C001 
OUR  CHILDREN  CHICAGO 


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